Broken time-reversal symmetry in strongly correlated ladder structures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of a staggered orbital current order coexisting with charge density waves in a doped strongly correlated ladder system, using advanced numerical methods, shedding light on pseudogap phenomena in cuprates.

Contribution

First controlled theoretical demonstration of staggered orbital current order in a doped strongly correlated ladder system using density matrix renormalization group techniques.

Findings

Existence of long-range ordered orbital currents in a doped ladder system.

Coexistence of orbital currents with charge density waves.

Relevance to pseudogap phase in high-temperature superconductors.

Abstract

We provide, for the first time, in a doped strongly correlated system (two-leg ladder), a controlled theoretical demonstration of the existence of a state in which long-range ordered orbital currents are arranged in a staggered pattern,coexisting with a charge density wave. The method used is the highly accurate density matrix renormalization group technique.This brings us closer to recent proposals that this order is realized in the enigmatic pseudogap phase of the cuprate high temperature superconductors.