Lectures on insulating and conducting quantum spin liquids

TL;DR

This paper reviews how the fractionalized Fermi Liquid (FL*) state explains key experimental observations in doped quantum spin liquids, including small hole pockets and anisotropic quasiparticle velocities.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive FL* framework using quantum dimer and Ancilla Layer Models to describe doped quantum spin liquids and their experimental signatures.

Findings

FL* state explains small hole pockets in pseudogap metals.

FL* state accounts for anisotropic nodal quasiparticle velocities.

Wavefunctions derived from ALM match ultracold atom experiments.

Abstract

Two of the iconic phases of the hole-doped cuprate materials are the intermediate temperature pseudogap metal and the lower temperature $d$-wave superconductor. Following the suggestion of P. W. Anderson, there were early theories of these phases as doped quantum spin liquids. However, these theories have had difficulties with two prominent observations: (i) angle-dependent magnetoresistance measurements (ADMR) in the pseudogap metal, including observation of the Yamaji effect, present convincing evidence of small hole pockets which can tunnel coherently between square lattice layers (Fang et al., Nature Physics 18, 558 (2022); Chan et al., Nature Physics 21, 1753 (2025)) and (ii) the velocities of the nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles in the $d$-wave superconductor are highly anisotropic, with $v_F \gg v_\Delta$ (Chiao et al., Phys. Rev. B 62, 3554 (2000)). These notes review how the fractionalized Fermi Liquid (FL*) state, which dopes quantum spin liquids with gauge-neutral electron-like quasiparticles, resolves both difficulties. Theories of insulating quantum spin liquids employing fractionalization of the electron spin into bosonic or fermionic partons are discussed. Doping the bosonic parton theory leads to a holon metal theory: while not appropriate for the cuprate pseudogap, this theory is argued to apply to ultracold atom experiments on the Lieb lattice. Doping the fermionic parton theory leads to a $d$-wave superconductor with nearly isotropic quasiparticle velocities. The construction of the FL* state in a single band Hubbard-type model is described using a quantum dimer model, followed by a more realistic description using the Ancilla Layer Model (ALM), which is then used to obtain the theory of the pseudogap and the $d$-wave superconductor. The ALM also leads to a wavefunction for the FL* state of the Hubbard model, which agrees with ultracold atom observations.