Violation of the Wiedemann-Franz Law in a Large-N Solution of the t-J Model

Abstract

We show that the Wiedemann-Franz law, which holds for Landau Fermi liquids, breaks down in a large-n treatment of the t-J model. The calculated ratio of the in-plane thermal and electrical conductivities agrees quantitatively with experiments on the normal state of the electron-doped Pr_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_4 (x = 0.15) cuprate superconductor. The violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the uniform phase contrasts with other properties of the phase that are Fermi liquid like.

4 pages, 2 figures. Typos corrected, one added reference, revised discussion of experiment on 214 cuprate material (x = 0.06)