Superconductivity in a doped Mott insulator

TL;DR

This paper develops a new theoretical framework for understanding superconductivity in doped Mott insulators, emphasizing gauge fluctuations and their effects on quasiparticles and phase coherence.

Contribution

It introduces an exact, long-wavelength treatment of gauge fluctuations in the d-wave RVB mean-field theory, connecting it to phase fluctuation theories of BCS pairing.

Findings

Describes gapless fermion quasiparticles coupled to phase fluctuations.

Highlights differences and similarities with BCS phase fluctuation theories.

Provides insights into the physical implications of gauge fluctuations in superconductors.

Abstract

Starting from the d-wave RVB mean-field theory of Kotliar and Liu, we present a new, long-wavelength/low-energy exact, treatment of gauge fluctuations. The result is a theory of gapless fermion quasiparticles coupled to superconducting phase fluctuations. We will discuss the physical implications, and the similarity/differences with a theory of BCS pairing with phase fluctuations.