Doping and temperature dependence of the pseudogap and Fermi arcs in cuprates from $d$-CDW short-range fluctuations in the context of the t-J model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how $d$-charge density wave fluctuations within the t-J model explain the doping and temperature dependence of the pseudogap and Fermi arcs in cuprates, aligning with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed self-energy analysis with two contributions, clarifying the roles of $d$-CDW fluctuations and charge constraints in pseudogap phenomena.

Findings

$ ext{Sigma}_{flux}$ explains low-energy pseudogap and Fermi arcs.

Doping and temperature dependence matches experimental data.

Charge fluctuation effects contribute to pseudogap closure.

Abstract

At mean-field level the t-J model shows a phase diagram with close analogies to the phase diagram of hole doped cuprates. An order parameter associated with the flux or $d$ charge-density wave ($d$-CDW) phase competes and coexists with superconductivity at low doping showing characteristics identified with the observed pseudogap in underdoped cuprates. In addition, in the $d$-CDW state the Fermi surface is reconstructed toward pockets with low spectral weight in the outer part, resembling the arcs observed in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments. However, the $d$-CDW requires broken translational symmetry, a fact that is not completely accepted. Including self-energy corrections beyond the mean, field we found that the self-energy can be written as two distinct contributions. One of these (called $\Sigma_{flux}$) dominates at low energy and originates from the scattering between carriers and $d$-CDW fluctuations in proximity to the $d$-CDW instability. The second contribution (called $\Sigma_{R\lambda}$) dominates at large energy and originates from the scattering between charge fluctuations under the constraint of non double occupancy. In this paper it is shown that $\Sigma_{flux}$ is responsible for the origin of low-energy features in the spectral function as a pseudogap and Fermi arcs. The obtained doping and temperature dependence of the pseudogap and Fermi arcs is similar to that observed in experiments. At low energy, $\Sigma_{R \lambda}$ gives an additional contribution to the closure of the pseudogap.