Manifestations of Strange Metallicity in Inelastic Neutron Studies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the emergence of an orbital-selective Mott phase in multi-band systems leads to non-Fermi liquid behavior and anomalous features in spin, charge, and phonon responses observed in inelastic neutron scattering of cuprates.

Contribution

It combines dynamical mean-field theory and analytic methods to reveal how OSMP causes novel dynamical susceptibilities and phonon anomalies in strange metals, connecting theory with experimental observations.

Findings

Emergence of critical liquid-like features in spin response.

Anomalous phonon dynamics explained by coupling to electronic continuum.

Good agreement with neutron scattering data in cuprates.

Abstract

Emergence of an orbital-selective Mott phase (OSMP) found in multi-band correlated systems leads to a non-perturbative obliteration of the Landau Fermi liquid in favor of a novel metallic state exhibiting anomalous infra-red (branch-cut) continuum features in one- and two-particle responses. We use a combination of $(1)$ dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) using the continuous-time-quantum Monte-Carlo (CTQMC) solver for a two-band Hubbard model and $(2)$ analytic arguments from an effective bosonized description to investigate strange metal features in inelastic neutron scattering studies for cuprates. Specifically, restricting our attention to symmetry-unbroken metallic phase, we study how emergence of an OSMP leads to qualitatively novel features in $(i)$ the dynamical spin and charge susceptibilities, and $(ii)$ phonon response in the strange metal, in detail. Extinction of the Landau quasiparticle pole in the one-electron propagator in the OSMP mirrors the emergence of critical liquid-like features in the dynamical spin response. This novel finding also underpins truly anomalous features in phonon dynamics, which we investigate by coupling half-breathing phonons in the specific context of cuprates to such a multi-electronic continuum. We find good understanding of various anomalies encountered in experimental inelastic neutron scattering studies in the near-optimally doped cuprates. We also extend these results in a phenomenological way to argue how modification of phonon spectra in underdoped cuprates can be reconciled with proposals for a nematic-plus-d-wave charge modulation order in the pseudogap state. We also study the issue of the dominant "pair glue" contributions to superconductivity, allowing us to interpret recent pump-probe results within a strange metal scenario.