Dual Vortex Theory of Strongly Interacting Electrons: Non-Fermi Liquid to the (Hard) Core

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dual vortex framework for strongly interacting 2D electrons, revealing that superconductivity is generic and Fermi liquids may be impossible under strong interactions, with implications for non-Fermi liquid states.

Contribution

It develops a novel dual vortex formalism for strongly interacting electrons, highlighting the prevalence of superconductivity and the potential absence of Fermi liquids.

Findings

Superconductivity emerges as a generic phase in the model.

Fermi liquid behavior is not supported in the strong interaction regime.

The framework connects to concepts like spin-charge separation and nodal liquids.

Abstract

As discovered in the quantum Hall effect, a very effective way for strongly-repulsive electrons to minimize their potential energy is to aquire non-zero relative angular momentum. We pursue this mechanism for interacting two-dimensional electrons in zero magnetic field, by employing a representation of the electrons as composite bosons interacting with a Chern-Simons gauge field. This enables us to construct a dual description in which the fundamental constituents are vortices in the auxiliary boson fields. The resulting formalism embraces a cornucopia of possible phases. Remarkably, superconductivity is a generic feature, while the Fermi liquid is not -- prompting us to conjecture that such a state may not be possible when the interactions are sufficiently strong. Many aspects of our earlier discussions of the nodal liquid and spin-charge separation find surprising incarnations in this new framework.