Nearly Antiferromagnetic Fermi Liquids: A Progress Report

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in understanding nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquids in cuprate superconductors, highlighting magnetic phases, pseudogap origins, and related physical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a scenario where the pseudogap arises from precursor spin-density-wave formation, supported by calculations and experimental evidence.

Findings

Identification of three magnetic phases in NAFLs

Pseudogap as a precursor to spin-density-wave state

Correlation between magnetic fluctuations and transport properties

Abstract

I describe recent theoretical and experimental progress in understanding the physical properties of the two dimensional nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquids (NAFL's) found in the normal state of the cuprate superconductors. In such NAFL's, the magnetic interaction between planar quasiparticles is strong and peaked at or near the commensurate wave vector, $Q \equiv (\pi,\pi)$. For the optimally doped and underdoped systems, the resulting strong antiferromagnetic correlations produce three distinct magnetic phases in the normal state: mean field above $T_{cr}$, pseudoscaling between $T_{cr}$ and $T_*$, and pseudogap below $T_*$. I present arguments which suggest that the physical origin of the pseudogap found in the quasiparticle spectrum below $T_{cr}$ is the formation of a precursor to a spin-density-wave-state, describe the calculations based on this scenario of the dynamical spin susceptibility, Fermi surface evolution, transport, and Hall effect, and summarize the experimental evidence in its support.