Large $N$ theory of critical Fermi surfaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a large N theoretical framework for critical Fermi surfaces in two dimensions, analyzing fluctuations, critical exponents, and potential instabilities, with applications to Ising order onset and marginal Fermi liquids.

Contribution

It introduces a large N saddle point analysis for a critical Fermi surface with random couplings, providing new insights into its fluctuations, critical exponents, and stability properties.

Findings

Critical exponents match non-random RPA theory.

Numerical solutions confirm analytical critical behavior.

No violations of time reparameterization symmetry found.

Abstract

We describe the large $N$ saddle point, and the structure of fluctuations about the saddle point, of a theory containing a sharp, critical Fermi surface in two spatial dimensions. The theory describes the onset of Ising order in a Fermi liquid, and closely related theories apply to other cases with critical Fermi surfaces. We employ random couplings in flavor space between the fermions and the bosonic order parameter, but there is no spatial randomness: consequently, the $G$-$\Sigma$ path integral of the theory is expressed in terms of fields bilocal in spacetime. The critical exponents of the large $N$ saddle-point are the same as in the well-studied non-random RPA theory; in particular, the entropy density vanishes in the limit of zero temperature. We present a full numerical solution of the large $N$ saddle-point equations, and the results agree with the critical behavior obtained analytically. Following analyses of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models, we describe scaling operators which descend from fermion bilinears around the Fermi surface. This leads to a systematic consideration of the role of time reparameterization symmetry, and the scaling of the Cooper pairing and $2k_F$ operators which can determine associated instabilities of the critical Fermi surface. We find no violations of scaling from time reparameterizations. We also consider the same model but with spatially random couplings: this provides a systematic large $N$ theory of a marginal Fermi liquid with Planckian transport.