Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Phase Fluctuations in Cuprate Superconductors: A QED$_3$ Unified Theory of the Pseudogap State
arXiv:cond-mat/0110253 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.180511
Abstract
A d-wave superconductor, its phase coherence progressively destroyed by unbinding of vortex-antivortex pairs, suffers an instability related to chiral symmetry breaking in two-flavor QED$_3$. The chiral manifold exhibits large degeneracy spanned by physical states acting as inherent ``competitors'' of d-wave superconductivity. Two of these states are associated with antiferromagnetic insulator and ``stripe'' phases, known to be stable in the pseudogap regime of cuprates near half-filling. The theory also predicts additional, yet unobserved state: a d+ip phase-incoherent superconductor.
4 pages, 2 figures