Physics of the Pseudogap State: Spin-Charge Locking

TL;DR

This paper explores the pseudogap phase in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, proposing that spin and charge degrees of freedom are locked, which affects vortex states and challenges the deconfinement of spinons.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spin-charge locking mechanism in the pseudogap phase, extending vortex liquid stability and providing a heuristic electrodynamics model.

Findings

Spin-charge locking extends vortex liquid state range.

Spinons may not be truly deconfined in the pseudogap phase.

Heuristic electrodynamics description of the pseudogap-vortex liquid.

Abstract

The properties of the pseudogap phase above Tc of the high-Tc cuprate superconductors are described by showing that the Anderson-Nambu SU(2) spinors of an RVB spin gap 'lock' to those of the electron charge system because of the resulting improvement of kinetic energy. This enormously extends the range of the vortex liquid state in these materials. As a result it is not clear that the spinons are ever truly deconfined. A heuristic description of the electrodynamics of this pseudogap-vortex liquid state is proposed.