# Pseudogap and Fermi-arcs in underdoped cuprates

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a periodic arrangement of loop-current order in cuprates to explain pseudogap and Fermi-arc phenomena observed in ARPES experiments, aligning with various experimental findings.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel periodic loop-current order model with large period to account for pseudogap and Fermi-arcs in underdoped cuprates, supported by a simple theoretical calculation.

## Key findings

- Reproduces ARPES features of pseudogap and Fermi-arcs
- Suggests experimental tests via diffraction or imaging
- Compatible with existing loop-current and quantum-critical theories

## Abstract

The proposed loop-current order in cuprates cannot give the observed pseudogap and the Fermi-arcs because it preserves translation symmetry. A modification to a periodic arrangement of the four possible orientations of the order parameter with a large period of between about 12 to 30 lattice constants is proposed and shown in a simple and controlled calculation to give one-particle spectra with every feature as in the ARPES experiments. The results follow from (1) the currents at the boundaries of the periodic domains with similar topology as the Affleck-Marston flux phase, and (2) the mixing introduced by the boundary currents between the states near the erstwhile Fermi-surface and the ghost Fermi-surfaces which are displaced from it by mini-reciprocal vectors. The proposed idea can be ruled out or verified by high resolution diffraction or imaging experiments. It does not run afoul of the variety of different experiments consistent with the loop-current order as well as the theory of the marginal Fermi-liquid and d-wave superconductivity based on quantum-critical fluctuations of the loop current order.