Pairing glue activation in cuprates within the quantum critical regime

Josef Ashkenazi and Neil F. Johnson

Physics Department, University of Miami - P.O. Box 248046, Coral Gables, FL 33126, USA

Received: 9 December 2011
Accepted: 3 May 2012

Abstract

A grand challenge in many-body quantum physics is to explain the apparent connection between quantum criticality and high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates and similar systems, such as the iron pnictides and chalcogenides. Here we argue that the quantum-critical regime plays an essential role in activating a strong-pairing mechanism: although pairing bosons create a symmetry-breaking instability which suppresses pairing, the combination of these broken-symmetry states within the critical regime can restore this symmetry for the paired quasiparticles. This condition is shown to be met within a large-U ansatz. A hidden quantum phase transition then arises between a Fermi-liquid and a non–Fermi-liquid broken-symmetry striped state, and a critical regime in which the broken-symmetry states are combined.