Momentum-gapped quasiparticles in disordered metals

TL;DR

This paper reveals a new type of collective mode in disordered metals, called momentum-gapped quasiparticles, which exhibit a finite energy gap at low momentum due to momentum relaxation caused by impurities.

Contribution

It establishes the existence of momentum-gapped quasiparticles in correlated quantum matter with broken translation symmetry, supported by hydrodynamic and microscopic model comparisons.

Findings

Identification of a new collective mode in disordered metals.

Observation of a finite energy gap at low momentum in a neutral mode.

Explanation of the mode as a momentum-gapped quasiparticle.

Abstract

Nature contains massless particles with linear dispersions, and massive particles whose energies depend quadratically on their momenta with finite mass gaps. Both have equivalents in condensed matter physics in the form of collective modes and quasiparticles, measurable excitations with well-defined energy-momentum relations. A hypothesised third particle type - the super-luminal tachyon - would have an undefined energy at low momentum. A similar collective mode - long hypothesised within the hydrodynamic theory of matter - would have a purely imaginary energy at low momentum, corresponding to a finite lifetime. This third possibility has never been directly observed in a quantum system. Through a careful comparison of hydrodynamics with microscopic models of metals, we establish that this previously unseen third dispersion occurs in correlated quantum matter whenever the electronic fluid undergoes momentum relaxation due to explicit breaking of translation by impurities. As a specific example of these momentum-relaxed modes we consider the recent discovery of an acoustic plasmon - dubbed Pines' demon - in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. The observed dispersion of this neutral mode differed significantly from the massless linear behaviour predicted by the random phase approximation. We demonstrate that the observed dispersion corresponds, in fact, to a momentum-gapped quasiparticle.