Deconfined criticality and ghost Fermi surfaces at the onset of antiferromagnetism in a metal

TL;DR

This paper introduces a theoretical framework for deconfined criticality involving ghost Fermi surfaces at the transition between large and small Fermi surface metals, with implications for correlated electron systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel model using ancilla qubits to describe criticality with ghost fermions and gauge fields, revealing new quantum critical phenomena in metals.

Findings

Emergence of a ghost Fermi surface carrying no spin or charge.

A jump in Hall coefficient at the transition.

Enhanced specific heat near the critical point.

Abstract

We propose a general theoretical framework, using two layers of ancilla qubits, for deconfined criticality between a Fermi liquid with a large Fermi surface, and a pseudogap metal with a small Fermi surface of electron-like quasiparticles. The pseudogap metal can be a magnetically ordered metal, or a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) without magnetic order. A critical 'ghost' Fermi surface emerges (alongside the large electron Fermi surface) at the transition, with the ghost fermions carrying neither spin nor charge, but minimally coupled to $(U(1) \times U(1))/Z_2$ or $(SU(2) \times U(1))/Z_2$ gauge fields. The $(U(1) \times U(1))/Z_2$ case describes simultaneous Kondo breakdown and onset of magnetic order: the two gauge fields induce nearly equal attractive and repulsive interactions between ghost Fermi surface excitations, and this competition controls the quantum criticality. Away from the transition on the pseudogap side, the ghost Fermi surface absorbs part of the large electron Fermi surface, and leads to a jump in the Hall co-efficient. We also find an example of an "unnecessary quantum critical point" between a metal with spin density wave order, and a metal with local moment magnetic order. The ghost fermions contribute an enhanced specific heat near the transition, and could also be detected in other thermal probes. We relate our results to the phases of correlated electron compounds.