Chung-Hou CHUNG (1 Department of Electrophysics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan – 2 Physics Division, National center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei,Taiwan)
A theory for quantum-critical Planckian strange metal phase in high-Tc cuprate superconductors
Résumé :
The strange metallic state showing incoherent charge transport with universal linear-in-temperature scattering rate: 1/τ = αP kB T / ħ with αP ~ 1 and logarithmic-in-temperature singular specific heat coefficient, so-called “Planckian metal”, has been observed in various high-Tc cuprate superconductors over a finite range in doping near optimal doping [1]. Understanding this state is believed to be the key to revealing the mechanism for high-Tc superconductivity. Here, we propose a generic microscopic mechanism for this state based on quantum-critical local bosonic charge Kondo fluctuations coupled to both spinon and a heavy conduction-electron Fermi surfaces within the heavy-fermion formulated slave-boson t-J model [2]. Our theory is motivated by the striking similarity in strange metal phenomenology between cuprates and heavy-fermion Kondo lattice systems [3]. By a controlled perturbative renormalization group analysis of our effective heavy-fermion model, we examine the competition between the pseudogap phase, characterized by Anderson’s Resonating-Valence-Bond spin-liquid made of fermionic spin-singlet spinons, and the Fermi-liquid state modeled by coherent electron hopping (charge Kondo hybridization). We find an extended quantum-critical metallic phase with a universal Planckian ħω/kBT scaling in scattering rate near a localized-delocalized (pseudogap-to-Fermi liquid) charge-Kondo breakdown transition of the model. The d-wave superconducting ground state emerges near the transition. Unprecedented qualitative and quantitative agreements are reached between our theoretical predictions and various experiments, including ħω/kBT scaling in optical conductivity [4], universal doping-insensitive field-to-temperature (B/T-) scaling in magnetoresistance [5], singular specific heat coefficient [6], marginal Fermi-liquid spectral function observed in ARPES [7], and Fermi surface reconstruction observed in Hall coefficients in various overdoped cuprates [5,8]. We further applied this framework to obtain a universal quantum-critical B/T-scaling in magneto-transport and unify the B-linear and T-linear Planckian scattering rate observed in LSCO over an extended doping range, pointing toward a unified quantum–critical origin of Planckian transport in cuprates [9]. This universal Planckian metal phase can be realized within a solvable large-N multi-channel Kondo lattice model generalized from this heavy-fermion formulated tJ model [10]. Our mechanism offers a microscopic understanding of the quantum-critical Planckian metal phase observed in cuprates and its link to the pseudogap, d-wave superconducting, and Fermi liquid phases. It offers a promising route for understanding how d-wave superconductivity emerges from such a strange metal phase in cuprates–one of the long-standing open problems in condensed matter physics since 1990s.
References
- Legros et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 142 (2019).
- A mechanism for quantum-critical Planckian metal phase in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, YY Chang, K Van Nguyen, K Remund, C.H. Chung*, Reports on Progress in Physics, 88, 048001 (2025).
- The scaled-invariant Planckian metal and quantum criticality in Ce1-xNdxCoIn5, Yung-Yeh Chang, Hechang Lei, Cedomir Petrovic*, Chung-Hou Chung*, Nature Communications 14 (581) (2023); A mechanism for the strange metal phase in rare-earth intermetallic compounds”, Jiangfan Wang, Yung-Yeh Chang and Chung-Hou Chung*, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Volume 119(10) e2116980119 March 1, 2022; Strange superconductivity near an antiferromagnetic heavy fermion quantum critical point, Y. Y. Chang, F. Hsu, S. Kirchner, C. Y. Mou, T. K. Lee, C. H. Chung*, Phys. Rev. B 99, 094513 (2019); Mechanism of a strange metal state near a heavy-fermion quantum critical point, Yung-Yeh Chang, Silke Paschen, Chung-Hou Chung*, Phys. Rev. B 97, 035156 (2018).
- B. Michon et al., Nature Communications 14, 3033 (2023).
- J. Ayres et al., Nature 595, 661 (2021).
- B. Michon et al., Nature 567, 218 (2019).
- S.D. Chen et al., Science, 366, 1099 (2019).
- C. Proust et al., Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 10, 409 (2019).
- Universality of T –linear and B–linear Planckian scattering rate in high–Tc cuprate superconductors, K. Remund, K. V. Nguyen, P.-H. Chou, P. Giraldo-Gallo, J. A. Galvis, G. S. Boebinger, and C.-H. Chung*, arXiv:2602.10627.
- Theory of universal Planckian metal phase in t-J model: application for high-temperature cuprate superconductors, YY Chang, K Van Nguyen, K Remund, CH Chung*, arXiv:2506.15552
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Contact : david.leboeuf@lncmi.cnrs.fr
