Non-zero temperature transport near quantum critical points

Abstract

We describe the nature of charge transport at non-zero temperatures ($T$) above the two-dimensional ($d$) superfluid-insulator quantum critical point. We argue that the transport is characterized by inelastic collisions among thermally excited carriers at a rate of order $k_B T/\hbar$. This implies that the transport at frequencies $ω\ll k_B T/\hbar$ is in the hydrodynamic, collision-dominated (or `incoherent') regime, while $ω\gg k_B T/\hbar$ is the collisionless (or `phase-coherent') regime. The conductivity is argued to be $e^2 / h$ times a non-trivial universal scaling function of $\hbar ω/ k_B T$, and not independent of $\hbar ω/k_B T$, as has been previously claimed, or implicitly assumed. The experimentally measured d.c. conductivity is the hydrodynamic $\hbar ω/k_B T \to 0$ limit of this function, and is a universal number times $e^2 / h$, even though the transport is incoherent. Previous work determined the conductivity by incorrectly assuming it was also equal to the collisionless $\hbar ω/k_B T \to \infty$ limit of the scaling function, which actually describes phase-coherent transport with a conductivity given by a different universal number times $e^2 / h$. We provide the first computation of the universal d.c. conductivity in a disorder-free boson model, along with explicit crossover functions, using a quantum Boltzmann equation and an expansion in $ε=3-d$. The case of spin transport near quantum critical points in antiferromagnets is also discussed. Similar ideas should apply to the transitions in quantum Hall systems and to metal-insulator transitions. We suggest experimental tests of our picture and speculate on a new route to self-duality at two-dimensional quantum critical points.

Feedback incorporated into numerous clarifying remarks; additional appendix discusses relationship to transport in dissipative quantum mechanics and quantum Hall edge state tunnelling problems, stimulated by discussions with E. Fradkin