Anomalous Nernst effect from a chiral d-density wave state in underdoped cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the anomalous Nernst effect observed in underdoped cuprates' pseudogap phase is due to a chiral d-density wave state breaking time-reversal symmetry, explaining experimental findings.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking the chiral d-density wave state to the anomalous Nernst effect in cuprates, suggesting a new origin for the effect.

Findings

The Nernst effect can be large at temperatures above Tc.

Chiral d-density wave state explains the Nernst effect in pseudogap phase.

Time-reversal symmetry breaking is confirmed by Kerr effect measurements.

Abstract

We show that the breakdown of time-reversal invariance, confirmed by the recent polar Kerr effect measurements in the cuprates, implies the existence of an anomalous Nernst effect in the pseudogap phase of underdoped cuprate superconductors. Modeling the time-reversal-breaking ordered state by the chiral d-density-wave state, we find that the magnitude of the Nernst effect can be sizable even at temperatures much higher than the superconducting transition temperature. These results imply that the experimentally found Nernst effect at the pseudogap temperatures may be due to the chiral d-density wave ordered state with broken time-reversal invariance.