Confined coherence in quasi-one-dimensional metals

TL;DR

This paper uses a functional renormalization group approach to show that strong interactions can suppress interchain hopping in quasi-one-dimensional metals, leading to a confined state with no coherent perpendicular motion.

Contribution

It demonstrates how large momentum transfer scattering processes can completely suppress Fermi surface warping in weakly coupled chains, revealing a new confinement mechanism.

Findings

Suppression of Fermi surface warping due to strong interactions.

Existence of a confined state with zero effective interchain hopping.

Interaction-driven transition from metallic to confined state.

Abstract

We present a functional renormalization group calculation of the effect of strong interactions on the shape of the Fermi surface of weakly coupled metallic chains. In the regime where the bare interchain hopping is small, we show that scattering processes involving large momentum transfers perpendicular to the chains can completely destroy the warping of the true Fermi surface, leading to a confined state where the renormalized interchain hopping vanishes and a coherent motion perpendicular to the chains is impossible.