arXiv:cond-mat/0103393v1 [cond-mat.

str-el] 19 Mar 2001

Singular Fermi Liquids

C. M. Varmaa,b, Z. Nussinovb, and Wim van Saarloosb
a Bell

Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, U.S.A.

b InstituutLorentz,

Universiteit Leiden, Postbus 9506, 2300 RA Leiden,

The Netherlands

Abstract
An introductory survey of the theoretical ideas and calculations and the experimental results which depart from Landau Fermi-liquids is presented. Common
themes and possible routes to the singularities leading to the breakdown of Landau
Fermi liquids are categorized following an elementary discussion of the theory. Soluble examples of Singular Fermi liquids include models of impurities in metals with
special symmetries and one-dimensional interacting fermions. A review of these is
followed by a discussion of Singular Fermi liquids in a wide variety of experimental
situations and theoretical models. These include the effects of low-energy collective
fluctuations, gauge fields due either to symmetries in the hamiltonian or possible
dynamically generated symmetries, fluctuations around quantum critical points, the
normal state of high temperature superconductors and the two-dimensional metallic
state. For the last three systems, the principal experimental results are summarized
and the outstanding theoretical issues highlighted.

Contents

Introduction

1.1

Aim and scope of this paper

1.2

Outline of the paper

Landaus Fermi-liquid

2.1

Essentials of Landau Fermi-liquids

2.2

Landau Fermi-liquid and the wave function renormalization Z

11

2.3

Understanding microscopically why Fermi-liquid Theory works

17

Present and permanent address

Preprint submitted to Elsevier Preprint

1 February 2008

2.4

Principles of the Microscopic Derivation of Landau Theory

22

2.5

Modern derivations

27

2.6

Routes to Breakdown of Landau Theory

29

Local Fermi-Liquids & Local Singular Fermi-Liquids

34

3.1

The Kondo Problem

34

3.2

Fermi-liquid Phenemenology for the Kondo problem

38

3.3

Ferromagnetic Kondo problem and the anisotropic Kondo problem

39

3.4

Orthogonality Catastrophe

40

3.5

X-ray Edge singularities

41

3.6

A Spinless Model with Finite Range Interactions

43

3.7

A model for Mixed-Valence Impurity

45

3.8

Multi-channel Kondo problem

47

3.9

The Two-Kondo-Impurities Problem

51

SFL behavior for interacting fermions in one dimension

55

4.1

The One Dimensional Electron Gas

57

4.2

The Tomonaga-Luttinger Model

59

4.3

One-particle Spectral functions

62

4.4

Thermodynamics

63

4.5

Correlation Functions

64

4.6

The Luther-Emery Model

65

4.7

Spin charge separation

67

4.8

Spin-charge Separation in more than one-dimension?

69

4.9

Recoil and the Orthogonality Catastrophe in 1d and higher

72

4.10 Coupled One-dimensional Chains

76

4.11 Experimental observations of one-dimensional Luttinger liquid

behavior

76

Singular Fermi-liquid behavior due to gauge fields

79

5.1

SFL behavior due to coupling to the electromagnetic field

79

5.2

Generalized gauge theories

82

Quantum Critical Points in fermionic systems

84

6.1

Quantum critical points in ferromagnets, antiferromagnets, and

charge density waves

85

6.2

Quantum critical scaling

88

6.3

Experimental Examples of SFL due to Quantum-Criticality: Open

Theoretical Problems

96

6.4

Special complications in heavy fermion physics

101

6.5

Effects of impurities on Quantum Critical Points

103

The High-Tc Problem in the Copper-Oxide Based Compounds

104

7.1

Some basic features of the high-Tc materials

105

7.2

Marginal Fermi Liquid behavior of the normal state

108

7.3

General Requirements on a Microscopic Theory

115

7.4

Microscopic Theory

117

The Metallic State in Two-Dimensions

123

8.1

The two-dimensional Electron Gas

124

8.2

Noninteracting Disordered Electrons: Scaling Theory of Localization

126

8.3

Interactions in Disordered Electrons

130

8.4

Finkelstein Theory

135

8.5

Compressibility, Screening length and a Mechanism for MetalInsulator Transition

137

8.6

Experiments

138

8.7

Discussion of the Experiments in light of the theory of Interacting

Disordered Electrons

144

Phase Diagram and Concluding Remarks

150

8.8

Acknowledgements

152

References

152

Introduction

1.1 Aim and scope of this paper

In the last two decades a variety of metals have been discovered which display thermodynamic and transport properties at low temperatures which are
fundamentally dierent from those of the usual metallic systems which are
well described by the Landau Fermi-liquid theory. They have often been referred to as Non-Fermi-liquids. A fundamental characteristic of such systems
is that the low-energy properties in a wide range of their phase diagram are
dominated by singularities as a function of energy and temperature. Since
these problems still relate to a liquid state of fermions and since it is not a
good practice to name things after what they are not, we prefer to call them
Singular Fermi-liquids (SFL).
The basic notions of Fermi-liquid theory have actually been with us at an
intuitive level since the time of Sommerfeld: He showed that the linear low
temperature specic heat behavior of metals as well as their asymptotic low
temperature resisitivity and optical conductivity could be understood by assuming that the electrons in a metal could be thought of as a gas of noninteracting fermions, i.e., in terms of quantum mechanical particles which do
not have any direct interaction but which do obey Fermi statistics. Meanwhile Pauli calculated that the paramagnetic susceptibility of non-interacting
electrons is independent of temperature, also in accord with experiments in
metals. At the same time it was understood, at least since the work of Bloch
and Wigner, that the interaction energies of the electrons in the metallic range
of densities are not small compared to the kinetic energy. The rationalization
for the qualitative success of the non-interacting model was provided in a masterly pair of papers by Landau [144,145] who initially was concerned with the
properties of liquid 3 He. This work introduced a new way of thinking about the
properties of interacting systems which is a cornerstone of our understanding
of condensed matter physics. The notion of quasiparticles and elementary excitations and the methodology of asking useful questions about the low-energy
excitations of the system based on concepts of symmetry, without worrying
about the myriad unnecessary details, is epitomized in Landaus phenomenlogical theory of Fermi-liquids. The microscopic derivation of the theory was
also soon developed.
4

Our perspective on Fermi-liquids has changed signicantly in the last two

decades or so. This is due both to changes in our theoretical perspective, and
due to the experimental developments: on the experimental side, new materials have been found which exhibit Fermi-liquid behavior in the temperature
dependence of their low temperature properties with the coecients often a
factor of order 103 dierent from the non-interacting electron values. These
observations dramatically illustrate the power and range of validity of the
Fermi-liquid ideas. On the other hand, new materials have been discovered
whose properties are qualitatively dierent from the predictions of Fermiliquid theory (FLT). The most prominently discussed of these materials are
the normal phase of high-temperature superconducting materials for a range of
compositions near their highest Tc . Almost every idea discussed in this review
has been used to understand the high-Tc problem, but there is no consensus
yet on the solution.
It has of course been known for a long time that FLT breaks down in the
uctuation regime of classical phase transitions. This breakdown happens in
a more substantial region of the phase diagram around the quantum critical
point (QCP) where the transition temperature tends to zero as a function of
some parameter, see Fig. 1. This phenomenon has been extensively investigated for a wide variety of magnetic transitions in metals where the transition
temperature can be tuned through application of pressure or by varying the
electronic density through alloying. Heavy fermion with their close competition between states of magnetic order with localized moments and itinerant
states due to Kondo-eects appear particularly prone to such QCPs. Equally
interesting are questions having to do with the change in properties due to
impurities in systems which are near a QCP in the pure limit.
The density-density correlations of itinerant disordered electrons at long wavelengths and low energies must have a diusive form. In two-dimensions this
leads to logarithmic singularities in the eective interactions when the interactions are treated perturbatively. The problem of nding the ground state
and low-lying excitations in this situation is unsolved. On the experimental
side the discovery of the metal-insulator transition in two dimensions and the
unusual properties observed in the metallic state makes this an important
problem to resolve.
The one-dimensional electron gas reveals logarithmic singularities in the eective interactions even in a second-order perturbation calculation. A variety of
mathematical techniques have been used to solve a whole class of interacting
one-dimensional problems and one now knows the essentials of the correlation
functions even in the most general case. An important issue is whether and
how this knowledge can be used in higher dimensions.
The solution of the Kondo problem and the realization that its low temper5

Fig. 1. Schematic phase diagram near a Quantum Critical Point. The parameter
along the x-axis can be quite general, like the pressure or a ratio of coupling constants. Whenever the critical temperature vanishes, a QCP, indicated with a dot
in the figure, is encountered. In the vicinity of such a point quantum mechanical,
zero-point fluctuations become very important. However when Tc is finite, critical
slowing down implies that the relevant frequency scale goes as |Tc T |z ,
dwarfing quantum effects; the standard classical critical methodology then applies.
An example of a phase diagram of this type for M nSi is shown in Fig. 34 below.

ature properties may be discussed in the language of FLT has led in turn
to the formulation and solution of impurity models with singular low energy
properties. Such models have a QCP for a particular relation between the
coupling constants; in some examples they exhibit a quantum critical line.
The thermodynamic and transport properties around such critical points or
lines are those of local singular Fermi-liquids. Although the direct experimental relevance of such models (as of one-dimensional models) to experiments
is often questionable, these models, being soluble, can be quite instructive in
helping to understand the conditions necessary for the breakdown of FLT and
associated quasiparticle concepts. The knowledge from zero-dimensional and
one-dimensional problems must nevertheless be used with care.
A problem which we do not discuss but which belongs in the study of SFLs
is the Quantum Hall Eect problem. The massive degeneracies of two-dimensional electrons in a magnetic-eld leads to spectacular new properties and
involves new fractional quantum numbers. The essentials of this problem were
solved following Laughlins inspired variational calculation. The principal reason for the omission is rstly that excellent papers reviewing the developments
are available [199,71,107] and secondly that the methodology used in this problem is in general distinct from those for discussing the other SFLs which have
a certain unity. We will however have occasions to refer to aspects of the quantum Hall eect problem often. Especially interesting from our point of view is
the weakly singular Fermi-liquid behavior predicted in the = 1/2 Quantum
Hall Eect [113].
6

One of the aspects that we want to bring to the foreground in this review is the
fact that SFLs all have in common some fundamental features which can be
stated usefully in several dierent ways. (i) they have degenerate ground states
to within an energy of order kB T . This degeneracy is not due to static external
potentials or constraints as in, for example the spin-glass problem, but degeneracies which are dynamically generated.(ii) Such degeneracies inevitably lead
to a breakdown of perturbative calculations because they generate infra-red
singularities in the correlation functions. (iii) If a bare particle or hole is added
to the system, it is attended by a divergent number of low energy particlehole pairs, so that the one-to-one correspondence between the one-particle
excitation of the interacting problem and those of the non-interacting problem, which is the basis for FLT, breaks down.
On the theoretical side, one may now view Fermi-liquid theory as a forerunner
of the Renormalisation Group ideas. The renormalisation group has led to a
sophisticated understanding of singularities in the collective behavior of manyparticle systems. Therefore these methods have an important role to play in
understanding the breakdown of FLT.
The aim of this paper is to provide a pedagogical introduction to SFLs, focused on the essential conceptual ideas and on issues which are settled and
which can be expected to survive future developments. Therefore, we will not
attempt to give an exhaustive review of the literature on this problem or of all
the experimental systems which show hints of SFL behavior. The experimental
examples we discuss have been selected to illustrate both what is essentially
understood and what is not understood even in principle. On the theoretical
side, we will shy away from presenting in depth the sophisticated methods
necessary for a detailed evaluation of correlation functions near QCP for
this we refer to the book by Sachdev [210] or for an exact solution of local impurity models (see, e.g., [118,212,244]). Likewise, for a discussion of the
application of quantum critical scaling ideas to Josephson arrays or quantum
Hall eects, we refer to the nice introduction by Sondhi et al. [232].

1.2 Outline of the paper

The outline of this paper is as follows. We start by summarizing in section 2

some of the key features of Landaus FLT in doing so, we will not attempt
to retrace all of the ingredients which can be found in many of the classical
textbooks [194,36]; instead our discussion will be focused on those elements
of the theory and the relation with its microscopic derivation that allow us
to understand the possible routes in which the FLT can break down. This is
followed in section 3 by the Fermi-liquid formulation of the Kondo problem
and of the SFL variants of the Kondo problem and of two-interacting Kondo
7

impurities. The intention here is to reinforce the concepts of FLT in a dierent

context as well as to provide examples of SFL behavior which oer important
insights because they are both simple and solvable. We then discuss the problem of one spatial dimension (d = 1), presenting the principal features of the
solutions obtained. We discuss why d = 1 is special, and the problems encountered in extending the methods and the physics to d > 1. We move then
from the comforts of solvable models to the reality of the discussion of possible
mechanisms for SFL behavior in higher dimensions. First we analyze in section
5 the paradigmatic case of long range interactions. Coulomb interactions will
not do in this regard, since they are always screened in a metal, but transverse
electromagnetic elds do give rise to long-range interactions. The fact that as a
result no metal is a Fermi-liquid for suciently low temperatures was already
realized long ago [120] from a practical point of view this mechanism is not
very relevant, since the temperatures where these eects become important
are of order 1016 Kelvin; nevertheless, conceptually this is important since it
is a simple example of a gauge theory giving rise to SFL behavior. Gauge theories on lattices have been introduced to discuss problems of fermions moving
with the constraint of only zero or single occupation per site. We then discuss in section 6 the properties near a quantum critical point, taking rst an
example in which the ferromagnetic transition temperature goes to zero as a
function of some externally chosen suitable parameter. We refer in this section
to several experiments in heavy fermion compounds which are only partially
understood or not understood even in principle. We then turn to a discussion
of the marginal Fermi-liquid phenemenology for the SFL state of copper-oxide
High - Tc materials and discuss the requirements on a microscopic theory that
the phenemenology imposes. A sketch of a microscopic derivation of the phenemenology is also given. We close the paper in section 8 with a discussion of
the metallic state in d = 2 and the state of the theory treating the diusive
singularities in d = 2 and its relation to the metal-insulator transition.

Landaus Fermi-liquid

2.1 Essentials of Landau Fermi-liquids

The basic idea underlying Landaus Fermi-liquid theory [144,145,194,36] is
that of analyticity, i.e. that states with the same symmetry can be adiabatically connected. Simply put this means that whether or not we can actually
do the calculation we know that the eigenstates of the full Hamiltonian of
the same symmetry can be obtained perturbatively from those of a simpler
Hamiltonian. At the same time states of dierent symmetry can not be obtained by continuation from the same state. This suggests that given a hard
problem which is impossible to solve, we may guess a right simple problem.
8

The low energy and long wavelength excitations, as well as the correlation
and the response functions of the impossible problem bear a one-to-one correspondence with the simpler problem in their analytic properties. This leaves
xing only numerical values. These are to be determined by parameters, the
minimum number of which is xed by the symmetries. Experiments often provide intuition as to what the right simple problem may be: for the interacting
electrons, in the metallic range of densities, it is the problem of kinetic energy of particles with Fermi statistics (If one had started with the opposite
limit, just the potential energy alone, the starting ground state is the Wigner
crystal a bad place to start thinking about a metal!). If we start with
non-interacting fermions, and then turn on the interactions, the qualitative
behavior of the system does not change as long as the system does not go
through (or is close to) a phase transition. Because of the analyticity, we can
even consider strongly interacting systems the low energy excitations in
these have strongly renormalized values of their parameters compared to the
non-interacting problem, but their qualitative behavior is the same of that of
the simpler problem.
The heavy fermion problem provides an extreme example of the domain of
validity of the Landau approach. This is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows the
specic heat of the heavy fermion compound CeAl3 . As in the Sommerfeld
model, the specic heat is linear in the temperature at low T , but if we write
Cv T at low temperatures, the value of is about a thousand times as
large as one would estimate from the density of states of a typical metal, using
the free electron mass. For a Fermi gas the density of states N(0) at the Fermi
energy is proportional to an eective mass m :
N(0) =

m kF
,
2h
2

(1)

with kF the Fermi wavenumber. Then the fact that the density of states at
the chemical potential is a thousand times larger than for normal metals can
be expressed by the statement that the eective mass m of the quasiparticles
is a thousand times larger than the free electron mass m. Likewise, as Fig. 3
shows, the resistivity of CeAl3 at low temperatures increases as T 2 . This also
is a characteristic sign of a Fermi-liquid, in which the quasiparticle lifetime
at the Fermi surface, determined by electron-electron interactions, behaves as
1/T 2. 2 However, just as the prefactor of the specic heat is a factor
thousand times larger than usual, the prefactor of the T 2 term in the resistivity
is a factor 106 larger while scales linearly with the eective mass ratio
m /m, the prefactor of the T 2 term in the resistivity increases for this class
2

In heavy fermions, at least in the observed range of temperatures, the transport

lifetime determining the temperature dependence of resistivity is proportional to
the single-particle lifetime.

Fig. 2. Specific heat of CeAl3 at low temperatures from Andres et al. [28]. The
slope of the linear specific heat is about 3000 times that of the linear specific heat
of say Cu. But the high-temperature cut-off of this linear term is smaller than that
of Cu by a similar amount. The rise of the specific heat in a magnetic field at low
temperatures is the nuclear contribution, irrelevant to our discussion.

Fig. 3. Electrical resistivity of CeAl3 below 100 mK, plotted against T 2 . From
Andres et al. [28].

of Fermi-liquids as (m /m)2 .
It should be remarked that the right simple problem is not always easy to
guess. The right simple problem for liquid 4 He is not the non-interacting
Bose gas but the weakly interacting Bose gas (i.e. the Bogoliubov problem
[44,146]). The right simple problem for the Kondo problem (a low-temperature
local Fermi liquid) was guessed [184] only after the numerical renormalization
group solution was obtained by Wilson [273]. The right simple problem for
two-dimensional interacting disordered electrons in the metallic range of
densities (section 8 in this paper) is at present unknown.
For SFLs the problem is dierent: usually one is in a regime of parameters
where no simple problem is a starting point in some cases the uctua10

Fig. 4. Bare-particle distribution at T = 0 for a given spin-direction in a translationally invariant Fermi-system with interactions (full line) and without interactions
(dashed line). Note that the position of the discontinuity, i.e. the Fermi wavenumber
kF , is not renormalized by interactions.

tions between solutions to dierent simple problems determines the physical

properties, while in others even this dubious anchor is lacking.

2.2 Landau Fermi-liquid and the wave function renormalization Z

Landau theory is the forerunner of our modern way of thinking about lowenergy eective Hamiltonians in complicated problems and of the renormalisation group. The formal statements of Landau theory in their original form
are often somewhat cryptic and mysterious this both reects Landaus style
and his ingenuity. We shall take a more pedestrian approach.
Let us consider the essential dierence between non-interacting fermions and
an interacting Fermi-liquid from a simple microscopic perspective. For free
fermions, the momentum states |ki are also eigenstates with energy eigenvalue
k =

h
2k2
2m

(2)

of the Hamiltonian. Moreover, the distribution of particles is given by the

Fermi-Dirac function for the thermal occupation n0k , where denotes the spin
label. At T = 0 the distribution jumps from 1 (all states occupied within the
Fermi sphere) to zero (no states occupied within the Fermi sphere) at|k| = kF
and energy equal to the chemical potential . This is illustrated in Fig. 4.
A good way to probe a system is to investigate the spectral function; the spectral function A(k, ) gives the distribution of energies in the system when
a particle with momentum k is added or removed from it (Remember that re11

Fig. 5. (a) The non-interacting spectral function A(k, ) at fixed k as a function of

. (b) The spectral function of single-electron excitations in a Fermi-liquid at fixed
k as a function of . If 1 A(k, ) is normalized to 1, signifying one bare particle, the
weight under the Lorentzian, i.e. the quasi-particle part, is Z. As explained in the
text, at the same time Z is the discontinuity in Fig. 4.

moving a particle excitation below the Fermi energy means that we add a hole
excitation). As sketched in Fig. 5(a), for the non-interacting system, A0 (k, )
is simply a delta-function peak at the energy k , because all momentum states
are also energy eigenstates:
A0 (k, ) = ( (k )) , for > ,
1
1
1
= ImG0 (k, ) .
= Im
(k ) + i

(3)
(4)

Here is small and positive; it reects that particles or holes are introduced
adiabatically, and is taken to zero at the end of the calculation for the pure
non-interacting problem. The rst step of the second line is just a simple
mathematical rewriting of the delta function; in the second line the Greens
function G0 for non-interacting electrons is introduced. More generally the
single-particle Greens function G(k, ) is dened in terms of the correlation
function of particle creation and annihilation operators in standard textbooks
[182,4,208,159]. For our present purposes, it is sucient to note that it is related to the spectral function A(k, ), which has a clear physical meaning and
which can be deduced through Angle Resolved Photoemission Experiments :
G(k, ) =

dx

A(k, x)
.
x + i sgn( )

(5)

A(k, ) thus is the spectral representation of the complex function G(k, ).

Here we have dened the so-called retarded Greens function which is especially
useful since its real and imaginary parts obey the Kramers-Kronig relations. In
the problem with interactions G(k, ) will dier from G0 (k, ). This dierence
12

Fig. 6. Schematic illustration of the perturbative expansion (8) of the change of

wave function as a result of the addition of an electron to the Fermi sea due to
interactions with the particles in the Fermi sea.

can be quite generally dened through the single-particle self-energy function

(k, ):


(G(k, ))1 = G0 (k, )

1

(k, ) .

(6)

Eq. (5) ensures the relation between G(k, ) and A(k, )

1
A(k, ) = Im G(k, ) .

(7)

With these preliminaries out of the way, let us consider the form of A(k, )
when we add a particle to an interacting system of fermions.
Due to the interaction (assumed repulsive) between the added particle and
those already in the Fermi-sea, the added particle will kick particles from below
the Fermi-surface to above. The possible terms in a perturbative description
of this process are constrained by the conservation laws of charge, particle
number, momentum and spin. Those which are allowed by the aforementioned
conservation laws are indicated pictorially in Fig. 6, and lead to an expression
of the type
1

1/2

N +1
|k
i = Zk ck | N i +

3/2

k1 ,k2 ,k3 1 ,2 ,3

k1 1 k2 2 k3 3 ck3 ck2 ck1

k,k1 k2 +k3 (; 1 , 2 , 3 )| N i + .

(8)

Here the ck s and ck s are the bare particle creation and annihilation operators,
and the dots indicate higher order terms, for which two or more particlehole pairs are created and (; 1 , 2 , 3 ) expresses conservation of spin under
vector addition. The multiple-particle-hole pairs for a xed total momentum
can be created with a continuum of momentums of the individual bare particles
and holes. Therefore an added particle with xed total momentum has a wide
distribution of energies. However if Zk dened by Eqn. (8) is nite, there will
be a well-dened feature in this distribution at some energy which is in general
dierent from the non-interacting value h
2 k 2 /(2m). The spectral function in
such a case will then be as illustrated in Fig. 5. It is useful to separate the
13

well-dened feature from the broad continuum by writing the spectral function
as the sum of two terms, A(k, ) = Acoh (k, ) + Aincoh (k, ). The singleparticle Greens function can be expressed as a sum of two corresponding
terms, G(k, ) = Gcoh (k, ) + Gincoh (k, ). Then
Gcoh (k, ) =

Zk
,
k + i/k

(9)

which for large lifetimes k gives a Lorentzian peak in the spectral density
at the quasiparticle energy k k . The incoherent Greens function is
smooth and hence for large k corresponds to the smooth background in the
spectral density.
The condition for the occurrence of the well-dened feature can be expressed
as the condition on the self-energy (k, ) that it has an analytic expansion
about = 0 and k = kF and that its real part be much larger than its
imaginary part. One can easily see that were it not so the expression (9)
for Gcoh could not be obtained. These conditions are necessary for a Landau
Fermi-liquid. Upon expanding (k, ) in (12) for small and small deviations
of k from kF and writing it in the form (9), we make the identications
1
= Zk Im(kF , = 0) ,
k

k = k Zk Zk ,

(10)

where

Zk = 1

!1

1
Z = 1 +
vF k

=0,k=kF

(11)

=0,k=kF

From Eq. (8) we have a more physical denition of Zk : Zk is the projection

amplitude of |kN +1 i onto the state with one bare particle added to the ground
state, since all other terms in the expansion vanish in the thermodynamic limit
in the perturbative expression embodied by (8),
1/2

Zk

= hkN +1 |ck | N i .

(12)

In other words, Zk is the overlap of the ground state wavefunction of a system

of interacting N 1 fermions of total momentum k with the wave function of
N interacting particles and a bare-particle of momentum k. Zk is called the
quasiparticle amplitude.
The Landau theory tacitly assumes that Zk is nite. Furthermore it asserts
that for small and k close to kF , the physical properties can be calculated
from quasiparticles which carry the same quantum numbers as the particles,
14

i.e. charge, spin and momentum and which may be dened simply by the

creation operator k,
:
|kN +1 i = k | N i .

(13)

Close to kF , and for T small compared to the Fermi-energy, the distribution

of the quasiparticles is assumed to be the Fermi-Dirac distribution in terms of
the renormalized quasiparticle energies. The bare particle distribution is quite
dierent. As is illustrated in Fig. 4, it is depleted below kF and augmented
above kF , with a discontinuity at T = 0 whose value is shown in microscopic
theory to be Zk . A central result of Fermi-liquid theory is that close to the
Fermi energy at zero temperature, the width 1/k of the coherent quasiparticle
peak is proportional to (k )2 so that near the Fermi energy the lifetime
is long and quasiparticles are well-dened. Likewise, at the Fermi energy 1/k
varies with temperature as T 2 . From the microscopic derivation of this result,
it follows that the weight in this peak, Zk , becomes equal to the jump Z in nk
when we approach the Fermi surface: Zk Z for k kF . For heavy fermions,
as we already mentioned, Z can be of the order of 103 . But as long as Z is
nonzero, one has Fermi-liquid properties for temperatures lower than about
ZEF . Degeneracy is eectively lost for temperatures much higher than ZEF
and classical statistical mechanics prevails. 3
An additional result from microscopic theory is the so-called Luttinger theorem, which states that the volume enclosed by the Fermi-surface does not
change due to interactions [182,4]. The mathematics behind this theorem is
that with the assumptions of FLT, the number of poles in the interacting
Greens function below the chemical potential is the same as that for the
non-interacting Greens function. Recall that the latter is just the number of
particles in the system.
Landau actually started his discussion of the Fermi-Liquid by writing the
equation for the deviation of the (Gibbs) free-energy from its ground state
value as a functional of the deviation of the quasiparticle distribution function
n(k, ) from the equilibrium distribution function n0 (k, )
n(k, ) = n(k, ) n0 (k, ),

(14)

as follows:
G = G0 +

1 X
1 X
fkk , nk nk + (15)
(k )nk +
V k,
2V 2 kk ,

It is an unfortunate common mistake to think of the properties in this regime as

SFL behavior.

15

Note that (k ) is itself a function of n; so the rst term contains at least

a contribution of order (n)2 which makes the second term quite necessary. In
principle, the unknown function fkk , depends on spin and momenta. However, spin rotation invariance allows one to write the spin part in terms of two
quantities, the symmetric and antisymmetric parts f s and f a . Moreover, for
low-energy and long-wavelength phenomena only momenta with k kF play
a role; if we consider the simple case of 3 He where the Fermi surface is spherical, rotation invariance implies that for momenta near the Fermi momentum
f can only depend on the relative angle between k and k ; this allows one to
expand in Legendre polynomials Pl (x) by writing
s,a
N(0)fkk
,

kk kF

X
l=0

k
) .
Fls,aPl (k

(16)

From the expression (15) one can then relate the lowest order so-called Landau
coecients F0 and F1s and the eective mass m to thermodynamic quantities
like the specic heat Cv , the compressibility , and the susceptibility :
Cv
m
=
,
Cv0
m

= (1 + F0s )
,
0
m

= (1 + F0a )
.
0
m

(17)

Here subscripts 0 refer to the quantities of the non-interacting reference system, and m is the mass of the fermions. For a Galilean invariant system (like
3
He), there is a a simple relation between the mass enhancement and the
Landau parameter F1s , and there is no renormalization of the particle current
j; however, there is a renormalization of the velocity: one has
j = k/m ,

v = k/m ,

m
Fs
= 1+ 1
m
3


(18)

The transport properties are calculated by dening a distribution function

n(k; r, t) which is slowly varying in space and time and writing a Boltzmann
equation for it [194,36].
It is a delightful conceit of the Landau theory that the expressions of the
low-energy properties in terms of the quasiparticles in no place involve the
quasiparticle amplitude Zk . In fact in a translationally invariant problem as
liquid 3 He, Zk cannot be measured by any thermodynamic or transport measurements . A masterly use of conservation laws ensures that Zs cancel out
in all physical properties (One can extract Z from measurement of the momentum distribution. By neutron scattering measurements, it is found that
Z 1/4 [108] for He3 near the melting line). This is no longer true on a
lattice, in the electron-phonon interaction problem [198] or in heavy fermions
[250] or even more generally in any situation where the interacting problem
16

contains more than one type of particle with dierent characteristic frequency
scales.

2.3 Understanding microscopically why Fermi-liquid Theory works

Let us try to understand from a more microscopic approach why the Landau
theory works so well. We present a qualitative discussion in this subsection and
outline the principal features of the formal derivation in the next subsection.
As we already remarked, a crucial element in the approach is to choose the
proper non-interacting reference system. That this is possible at all is due
to the fact that the number of states to which an added particle can scatter
due to interactions is severely limited due to the Pauli principle. As a result
non-interacting fermions are a good stable system to perturb about: they
have a nite compressibility and susceptibility in the ground state, and so
collective modes and thermodynamic quantities change smoothly when the
interactions are turned on. This is not true for non-interacting bosons which
do not support collective modes like sound waves. So one cannot perturb about
the non-interacting bosons as a reference system.
Landau also laid the foundations for the formal justication of Fermi Liquid
theory in two and three dimensions. The urry of activity in this eld following the discovery of high-Tc phenomena has led to new ways of justifying
Fermi-liquid theory (and understanding why the one-dimensional problem is
dierent). But the principal physical reason, which we now discuss, remains
the phase space restrictions due to kinematical constraints.
We learned in section 2.2 that to be able to dene quasiparticles, it was necessary to have a nite ZkF and that this in turn needed a self-energy function
(kF , ) which is smooth near the chemical potential, i.e. at = 0. Let us
rst see why a Fermi gas has such properties when interactions are calculated
perturbatively.
In Fig. 7 we show the three possible processes that arise in second order
perturbation theory for the scattering of two particles with xed initial energy
and momentum q. Note that in two of the diagrams, Fig. 7(a) and 7(b) the
intermediate state has a particle and a hole while the intermediate state in
diagram 7(c) has a pair of particles.
We will nd that, for our present purpose, the contribution of diagram 7(a)
is more important than the other two. It gives a contribution
g2

X
k

fk+q fk
.
(Ek+q Ek ) + i
17

(19)

(a)
p1
p1 + q

k+q

(b)
p2

p1

p2 + q

p2

p1 p2
+k + q

p1 + q

(c)
p1

p2 + q

p2

p1 + k

p1 + q

p2

p2 + q

Fig. 7. The three second-order processes in a perturbative calculation of the correction to the bare interaction in a Fermi-liquid

Here g is a measure of the strength of the scattering potential (the vertex

in the diagram) in the limit of small q. The denominator ensures that the
largest contribution to the scattering comes from small scattering momenta
q: for these the energy dierence is linear in q, Ek+q Ek q vk , where
vk is a vector of length vF in the direction of k. Moreover, the term in the
numerator is nonzero only in the area contained between two circles (for d = 2)
or spheres (for d = 3) with their centers displaced by q here is the phase
space restriction due to the Pauli principle! This area is also proportional to
q vk , and so in the small q approximation we get from diagram 7(a) a term
proportional to
g2

q vk
df
.
q vk + i dk

(20)

Now we see why we diagram 7(a) is special. There is a singularity at = q vk

and its value for small and q depends on which of the two is smaller.
This singularity is responsible for the low energy-long wavelength collective
modes of the Fermi liquid in Landau theory. At low temperatures, df /dk =
(k ), so the summation is restricted to the Fermi surface. The real part
of (19) therefore vanishes in the limit qvF / 0, while it approaches a finite
limit for 0. The imaginary part in this limit is proportional to 4 ,
Im(q, ) = g 2 N(0)

qvF

for < qvF ,

(21)

while Im(q, ) = 0 for > vF q. This behavior is sketched in Fig. 8(b).

Explicit evaluation yields for the real part
"

 qv 

F
Re(q, ) = g N(0) 1 +

ln 

qvF
+ qvF 
2

(22)

which gives a constant (leading to a nite compressibility and spin susceptibility) at small compared to qvF . For diagram 7(b), we get a term

This behavior implies that this scattering contribution is a marginal term in the
renormalization group sense, which means that it affects the numerical factors, but
not the qualitative behavior.

18

(a)

(b)
Im

on

sm
pla

(q; !)

allowed
parti le-hole
ex itations

2kF

qvF

Fig. 8. (a) Restriction on allowed particle-hole excitations in a Fermi-sea due to

kinematics. The plasmon mode has been drawn for the case d = 3. (b) The absorptive part of the particle-hole susceptibility (in the charge, current and spin channels)
for < qvF in the Fermi gas.

(Ep1 p2 +k+q Ek ) in the denominator. This term is always nite for general
momenta p1 and p2 , and hence the contribution from this diagram can always
be neglected relative to the one from 7(a). Along similar lines, one nds that
diagram 7(c), which describes scattering in the particle-particle channel, is
irrelevant except when p1 = p2 , when it diverges as ln .
Of course, this scattering process is the one which gives superconductivity.
Landau noticed this singularity but ignored its implication 5 . Indeed, as long as
the eective interactions do not favor superconductivity or as long as we are at
temperatures much higher than the superconducting transition temperature,
it is not important for Fermi-liquid theory.
Let us now look further at the absorptive spectrum of particle-hole excitations
in two and three dimensions, i.e., we examine the imaginary part of Eq. (19).
When the total energy of the pair is small, both the particle and the hole have
to live close to the Fermi surface. In this limit, we can make any excitation with
momentum q 2kF . For xed but small values of q, the maximum excitation
energy is qvF ; this occurs when q is in the same direction as the main
momentum k of each quasiparticle. For q near 2kF the maximum possible
energy is = vF |q 2kF |. Combining these results, we get the sketch in Fig.
8(a), in which the shaded area in the -q space is the region of allowed particlehole excitations 6 . From this spectrum one can calculate the polarizability, or
the magnetic susceptibility.
The behavior sketched above is valid generally in two and three dimensions
(but as we will see in section 4, not in one dimension). The important point
5

Attractive interactions in any angular momentum channel (leading to superconductivity) are therefore relevant operators.
6 In the presence of long-range Coulomb interactions one gets in addition to the
particle-hole excitation spectrum a collective mode with a finite plasma frequency

as q 0 in d = 3 and a q behavior in d = 2.

19

Fig. 9. The single-particle self-energy diagram in second order.

to remember is that the density of particle-hole excitations decreases linearly

with for small compared to qvF . We shall see later that one way to undo
Fermi-liquid theory is to have vary as k 2 in two dimensions or k 3 in
three dimensions.
We can now use Im (q, ) to calculate the single-particle self-energy to second
order in the interactions. This is shown in Fig. 9 where the wiggly line denotes
(q, ) which in the present approximation is just given by the diagram of Fig.
7(a).
For the perturbative evaluation of this process, the intermediate particle with
energy-momentum ( +), (k +q) is a free particle. Second order perturbation
theory then yields an imaginary part or decay rate
Im (k, ) =

= g 2 N(0)
(k, )
EF


2

(23)

in three dimensions for k kF . In two dimensions, the same process yields

Im (kF , ) 2 ln(EF /).
The 2 decay rate is intimately related to the analytic result (22) for Im (q, )
exhibited in Fig. (8). As may be found in text books, the same calculation for
electron-phonon interactions or for interaction with spin waves in an antiferromagnetic metal gives Im (kF , ) (/c )3 , with c is the phonon Debye
frequency in the former and the characteristic zone-boundary spin-wave frequency in the latter.
The real part of the self-energy may be obtained directly or by Kramers
Kronig transformation of (23). It is proportional to . Therefore, if the quasiparticle amplitude ZkF is evaluated perturbatively 7
ZkF 1 2g 2 N(0)/EF .

(24)

Thus in a perturbative calculation of the eect of interactions the basic analytic structure of the Greens function is left the same as for non-interacting
fermions. The general proof of the validity of Landau theory consists in showing that what we have seen in second order in g remains true to all orders in g.
7

This quantity has been precisely evaluated by Galitski [100] for the model of a
dilute Fermi gas characterized by a scattering length.

20

The original proofs [4] are self-consistency arguments we will consider them
briey in section 2.4. They assume a nite Z in exact single-particle Greens
functions and show eectively that to any order of perturbation, the polarizability functions retain the analytic structure of the non-interacting theory,
which in turn ensures a nite Z.
In one dimension, phase space restrictions on the possible excitations are crucially dierent 8 , since the Fermi surface consists of just two points in the
one-dimensional space of momenta see Fig. 10. As a result, whereas in
d = 2 and d = 3 a continuum of low-energy excitations with nite q is possible, at low energy only excitations with small k or k 2kF are possible. The
subsequent equivalence of Fig. 8 for the one-dimensional case is the one shown
in Fig. 11. Upon integrating over the momentum k with a cut-o of O(kF )
the contribution from this particle-hole scattering channel to Re (q, ) is
Z

dk

1
ln[( + qvF )/EF ] .
+ (2k + q)vF

(25)

(Note that (25) is true for both q << kF and |q 2kF | << kF .) This in turn
leads to a single particle self-energy calculated by the process in Fig. 9 to
be Re (kF , ) ln giving a hint of trouble. Also the Cooper (particleparticle) channel has the same phase space restrictions, and gives a contribution also proportional to ln . The fact that these sngular contributions are of
the same order, leads to a competition between charge/spin uctuations and
Cooper pairing uctuations, and to power law singularities. Also, the fact that
instead of a continuum of low energy excitations as in higher dimensions, the
width of the band of allowed particle hole excitations vanishes as 0, is
the reason that the properties of one-dimensional interacting metals can be
understood in terms of bosonic modes. We will present a brief summary of
the results for the single-particle Greens function and correlation functions in
section 4.9.
In special cases of nesting in two or three dimensions, one can have situations
that resemble the above one-dimensional case. When the non-interacting Fermi
surface in a tight binding model has the square shape sketched in Fig. 12(a)
this happens for a tight-binding model with nearest neighbor hopping on
a square lattice at half-lling a continuous range of momenta on opposite
sides of the Fermi surface can be transformed into each other by one and the
same wavenumber. This so-called nesting leads to log and log2 singularities
for a continuous range of k in the perturbation theory for the self energy
(k, ). Likewise, the partially nested Fermi surface of Fig. 12(b) leads to
charge density wave and antiferromagnetic instabilities. We will come back to
8

It might appear surprising that they are not different in any essential way between
higher dimensions.

21

Fig. 10. Single-particle energy k in one dimension, in the approximation that

the dispersion relation is linearized about kF . Note the Fermi surface consists of just two points. The spectrum of particle-hole excitations is given by
(q) = (k + q) (k) = kF q/m. Low-energy particle-hole excitations are only
possible for q small or for q near 2kF .

Fig. 11. Phase space for particle-hole excitation spectrum in one dimension. Compare with the same in higher dimensions, Fig. 8. For linearized single-particle kinetic
energy k = vF (k kF ), particle-hole excitations are only possible on lines going
through k = 0 and k = 2kF .

these in sections 2.6 and 6.

2.4 Principles of the Microscopic Derivation of Landau Theory
In this section we will sketch how the conclusions in the previous section
based on second-order perturbation calculation are generalized to all orders in
perturbation theory. This section is slightly more technical than the rest; the
reader may choose to skip to section 2.6.
We follow the microscopic approach whose foundations were laid by Landau
himself and which is discussed in detail in excellent textbooks [184,194,36,4].
For more recent methods with the same conclusions see [222,121]. Our emphasis will be on highlighting the assumptions in the theory so that in the next
section we can summarize the routes by which the Fermi-liquid theory may
break down. These assumptions are usually not stated explicitly.
22

Fig. 12. (a) The nested Fermi surface on obtained in a tight binding model on a
square lattice with nearest neighbor hopping; (b) A partially nested Fermi surface
which leads to charge density wave or antiferromagnetic instabilities

Fig. 13. Diagrammatic representation of Eq. (27).

The basic idea is that due to kinematic constraints, any perturbative process
with n particle-hole pairs in the intermediate state gives contributions to the
polarizability proportional to (/EF )n . Therefore the low energy properties
can be calculated with processes with the same skeletal structure as those
in Fig. 7, which have only one particle-hole pair in the intermediate state. So
one may concentrate on the modication of the four-legged vertices and the
single-particle propagators due to interactions to all orders. Accordingly the
theory is formulated in terms of the single particle Greens function G(p) and
the two-body scattering vertex,
(p1 , p2 , p1 + k, p2 k) = (p1 , p2 , k)

(26)

Here and below we use, for sake of brevity, p, etc. to denote the energymomentum four-vector (p, ) and we suppress the spin labels. The equation
23

for is expanded in one of the two particle-hole channels as 9

(p1 , p2 , k) = (1) (p1 , p2 , k)
i (1) (p1 , q, k) G(q)G(q + k) (q, p2 , k)

d4 q
, (27)
(2)4

where (1) is the irreducible part in the particle hole channel in which Eq.
(27) is expressed. In other words, (1) can not be split up into two parts by
cutting two Greens function lines with total momentum k. So (1) includes
the complete vertex in the other (often called cross-) particle-hole channel.
The diagrammatic representation of Eq. (27) is shown in Fig. 13. In the simplest approximation (1) is just the bare two-body interaction. Landau theory
assumes that (1) has no singularities 10 An assumption is now further made
that G(p) does have a coherent quasiparticle part at |p| pF and 0,
G(p) =

Z
+ Ginc ,
p + i sgn(p )

(28)

where p is to be identied as the excitation energy of the quasiparticle, Z its

weight, and Ginc the non-singular part of G (The latter provides the smooth
background part of the spectral function in Fig. 5(b) and the former the sharp
peak, which is proportional to the function for p = p . It follows [182,4]
from (28) that
G(q)G(q + k) =

2iz 2
vq k
()(|q| pF ) + (q) ,
vF vq k

(29)

for small k and , and where and ( + ) are frequencies of the two Greens
functions. Note the crucial role of kinematics in the form of the rst term which
comes from the product of the quasiparticle parts of G; (q) comes from the
scattering of the incoherent part with itself and with the coherent part and is
assumed smooth and featureless (as it is indeed, given that Ginc is smooth and
featureless and the scattering does not produce an infrared singularity at least
perturbatively in the interaction). The vertex in regions close to k kF and
0 is therefore dominated by the rst term. The derivation of Fermi-liquid
theory consists in proving that the equations (27) for the vertex and (28) for
the Greens function are mutually consistent.
9

To second order in the interactions the correction to the vertex in the two possible
particle-hole channels has been exhibited in the first two parts of Fig. 7.
10 The theory has been generalized for Coulomb interactions [194,184,4].The general
results remain unchanged because a screened short-range interaction takes the place
of (1) .This is unlikely to be true in the critical region of a metal-insulator transition,
because on the insulating side the Coulomb interaction is unscreened.

24

The proof proceeds by dening a quantity (p1 , p2 , k) through

(p1 , p2 , k) = (1) (p1 , p2 , k)
i (1) (p1 , q, k)(q) (q, p2 , k)

d4 q
.
(2)4

(30)

contains repeated scattering of the incoherent part of the particle-hole pairs

among itself and with the coherent part, but no scattering of the coherent part
with itself. Then, provided the irreducible part of (1) is smooth and not too
large, is smooth in k because (q) is by construction quite smooth.
Using the fact that the rst part of (29) vanishes for vF |k|/ 0, and comparing (27) and (30) one can write the forward scattering amplitude


lim lim (p1 , p2 , k)

k0

= (p1 , p2 ) .

(31)

This is now used to write the equation for the complete vertex in terms of
:
(p1 , p2 , k) = (p1 , p2 )
Z
Z 2 p2F
vq k
+
(p1 , q)(q, p2, k)
dq ,
3
(2) vF
vq k

(32)

where in the above |q| = pF and one integrates only over the solid angle q .
Given a non-singular , a non-singular is produced (unless the denominator
in Eq. (32) produces singularities after the indicated integration-the LandauPomeranchuk singularities discussed below). The one-particle Greens function
G can be expressed exactly in terms of see Fig. 14. This leads to Eq. (28)
proving the self-consistency of the ansatz with a nite quasiparticle weight Z.
The quantity Z 2 is then a smooth function and goes into the determination
of the Landau parameters.
The Landau parameters can be written in terms of the forward scattering amplitude. In eect they parametrize the momentum and frequency independent
scattering of the incoherent parts among themselves and with the coherent
parts so that the end result of the theory is that the physical properties can
be expressed purely in terms of the quasiparticle part of the single-particle
Greens function and the Landau parameters. No reference to the incoherent
parts needs to be made for low energy properties. For single-component translational invariant fermions (like liquid 3 He) even the quasiparticle amplitude
Z disappears from all physical properties. This last is not true for renormalization due to electron-phonon interactions and in multi-component systems
25

Fig. 14. Diagram for the exact single-particle self-energy in terms of the exact vertex
and the exact single-particle Greens function.

such as heavy fermions. Special simplications of the Landau theory occur in

such problems and in other problems where the single-particle self-energy is
nearly momentum independent [168,264,101,250,175].
As we also mentioned, the single-particle self-energy can be written exactly
in terms of the vertex : the relation between the two is represented diagrammatically in Fig. 14. The relations between and are due to conservation
laws which Landau theory, of course, obeys. But the conservation laws are
more general than Landau theory. It is often more convenient to express these
conservation laws as relations between the self-energy and the three-point vertices, (p; q) which couple external perturbations to either the density (the
fourth component, = 4) or the current density in the = (1, 2, 3) direction
The diagrammatic representation of the equation for is shown in Fig. 15.
The following relations (Ward identities) have been proven for translationally
invariant problems:
!

(p, ) ,
0, q 0 (p; q) =

lim
q
m p
!

(p, )
lim
0, q 0 4 (p; q) = 1 +
,
q



p
d
q
0, 0 (p; q) =

(p, ) ,
lim

m dp


d(p, )
q
0, 0 4 (p; q) = 1 +
.
lim

( = 1, 2, 3) (33)
(34)
( = 1, 2, 3) (35)
(36)

A relation analogous to (34) is derived for elds coupling to spin for the case
that interactions conserve spin. The total derivative in (35) and (36) [rather
than the partial derivative in (33) and (34)] represents that d/d is the
variation in when is changed to + d together with to + d, and
d/dp represents the variation when the momentum p as well as the Fermisurface is translated by dp .
26

Fig. 15. Vertex for coupling to external perturbations at energy-momentum (, q);

is the bare vertex.

Eq. (36) is an expression of energy conservation, and Eq. (34) of particle number conservation. Eqs. (33) and (34) together signify the continuity equation.
Eq. (35) represents current conservation 11 .
In Landau theory, the right hand sides in Eqs. (33)-(36) are expressible in
terms of the Landau parameters. These relations are necessary to derive the
renormalization in the various thermodynamic quantities that we quoted in
Eqs. (17) and (18) as well as the Landau transport equation. Needless to say,
any theory of SFL must also be consistent with the Ward identities.

2.5 Modern derivations

The modern derivations of Fermi-liquid theory start as well by assuming the

existence of a Fermi surface. Kinematics then inevitably leads to similar considerations as above. Instead of the division into coherent and incoherent part
made in Eq. (28), the renormalization group procedures are used to systematically generate a successively lower energy and small momentum Hamiltonian
with excitations of particle ever closer to the Fermi surface. The calculations
are done either in terms of fermions [222] or newly developed bosonization
methods in arbitrary dimensions [121]. The end result is equivalent to Eqs.
(28), (30) and (32). These methods may well turn out to be very important
in nding the structure of SFLs and in systematizing them.
These derivations do the calculation in arbitrary dimension d and conclude
11

The Ward identity Eq. (35) does not hold for impure system where the Fermisurface cannot be defined in momentum space. Since energy is conserved, a Fermi
surface can still be defined in energy space, and hence the other Ward identities
continue to hold. This point is further discussed in section 7.

27

that the forward scattering amplitude is

(p1 , p2 , k)

k
kF

!d1

f (p1 , p2 , k) ,

(37)

where f is a smooth function of all of its arguments. In one-dimension the

forward scattering amplitude has a logarithmic singularity, as we noted earlier.
We can rephrase the conceptual framework of Landau Fermi-liquid theory in
the modern language of Renormalization Group theory [222]. As we discussed,
in Fermi-Liquid theory one treats a complicated strongly interacting fermion
problem by writing the Hamiltonian H as
H = Hsimple + Hrest .

(38)

In our discussion Hsimple was the non-interacting Hamiltonian. The non-interacting Hamiltonian is actually a member of a line of xed-point Hamiltonians
H all of which have the same symmetries but dier in their Landau parameters Fls,a etc. The Fl s, obtained from the forward scattering in Landau theory
are associated with marginal operators and distinguish the properties of the
various systems associated with the line of xed points. Landau fermi-liquid
theory is rst of all the statement of the domain of attraction of this line of
xed points. The theory also establishes the universal low temperature properties due to the irrelevant operators generated by Hrest due to scattering
in channels other than the forward channel. Landau theory does not establish (at least completely) the domain of attraction of the critical surface
bounding the domain of attraction of the Fermi-liquid xed line from those of
other xed points or lines. If Hrest were to generate a relevant operator
i.e., eective interactions which diverge at low energies (temperatures) the
scheme breaks down. For example, attractive interactions between fermions
generate relevant operatorsthey presage a transition to superconductivity, a
state of dierent symmetry. But if we stay suciently above Tc , we can usually
continue using Landau theory 12 .

12

We note that in a Renormalization Group terminology, all Landau parameters

fkk , originating from forward scattering (i.e. zero momentum transfer), are
marginal operators [143,222]. All other operators that determine finite temperature observable properties are irrelevant. Thus, in a universal sense, condensed
matter physics may be deemed to be an irrelevant field. So much for technical
terminology!

28

2.6 Routes to Breakdown of Landau Theory

From Landaus phenomenological theory, one can only say that the theory
breaks down when the physical properties specic heat divided by temperature, 13 compressibility, or the magnetic susceptibility diverge or when the
collective modes representing oscillations of the Fermi-surface in any harmonic
and singlet or triplet spin combinations become unstable. The latter, called
the Landau-Pomeranchuk singularities, are indeed one route to the breakdown
of Landau theory and occur when the Landau parameters Fls,a reach the critical value (2l + 1). A phase transition to a state of lower symmetry in then
indicated. The new phase can again be described in Landau theory by dening
distribution functions consistent with the symmetry of the new ground state.
The discussion following Eq. (8) in section 2.2 allows us to make a more general
statement. Landau theory breaks down when the quasiparticle amplitude Zk
becomes zero; i.e. when the state ck | N i and |kN +1 i are orthogonal. This can
happen if the series expansion in Eq. (8) in terms of the number of particlehole pairs is divergent. In other words, addition of a particle or a hole to the
system creates a divergent number of particle-hole pairs in the system so that
the leading term does not have a nite weight in the thermodynamic limit.
From Eq. (11) connecting the Z s to s, this requires that the single-particle
self-energy be singular as a function of at k kF . This in turn means that
the Greens functions of SFLs contain branch cuts rather than the poles unlike
Landau Fermi-liquids. The weakest singularity of this kind is encountered in
the borderline marginal Fermi-liquids where 14
c
(kF , ) ln
+ i|| .

(39)

If a divergent number of low-energy particle-hole pairs is created upon addition

of a bare particle, it means that the low-energy response functions (which
all involve creating particle-hole pairs) of SFLs are also divergent. Actually
the single-particle self-energy can be written in terms of integrals over the
complete particle-hole interaction vertex as in Fig. 14. The implication is that
13

The specific heat of a system of fermions can be written in terms of integrals

over the phase angle of the exact single-particle Greens function ([4]). Given any
singularity in the self-energy, Cv /T is never more singular than ln T . This accounts
for the numerous experimental examples of such behavior we will come across.
14 To see why this is the borderline case, note that a requisite for the definition

of a quasiparticle is that the quasiparticle peak width k1 = 2 should vanish

faster than linear in , the quasiparticle energy. Thus is the first power for
which this is not true. The ln(c /) term in Eqn. (39) is then dictated by the
Kramers-Kroning relation.

29

the interaction vertices are actually more divergent than the single-particle
self-energy.
Yet another route to SFLs is the case in which the interactions generate
new quantum numbers which are not descriptive of the non-interacting problem. This happens most famously in the Quantum Hall problems and in onedimensional problems (section 4) as well as problems of impurity scattering
with special symmetries (section 3). In such cases the new quantum numbers
characterize new low-energy topological excitations. New quantum numbers
of course imply Z = 0, but does Z = 0 imply new quantum numbers. One
might wish to conjecture that this is so. But there is no proof of this 15 .
In the nal analysis all breakdowns of Landau theory are due to degeneracies
leading to singular low-energy uctuations. If the characteristic energy of the
uctuations is lower than the temperature, a quasi-classical statistical mechanical problem results. On the basis of our qualitative discussion in section
2.3 and the sketch of the microscopic derivation in section 2.4, we may divide
up the various routes to breakdown of Landau theory into the following (not
necessarily orthogonal) classes:
(i) Landau-Pomeranchuk Singularities: Landau theory points to the possibility
of its breakdown through the instability of the collective modes of the Fermisurface which arise from the solution of the homogeneous part of Eqn.(32).
These collective modes can be characterized by the angular momentum of
oscillation of the Fermi-surface and whether the oscillation is symmetric s
or anti-symmetric a in spin. The condition for the instability derived from
the condition of zero frequency of the collective modes are [194,36]
Fs (2 + 1) ,

Fa (2 + 1) .

(40)

The = 0 conditions refer to the divergence in the compressibility and the

(uniform) spin-susceptibility. The former would in general occur via a rstorder transition, so is uninteresting to us. The latter describes the ferromagnetic instability. No other Landau-Pomeranchuk instabilities have been experimentally identied. But such new and exotic possibilities should be kept in
mind. Thus, for example, an F1s -instability corresponds to the Fermi-velocity
0, a F2s instability to a d-wave-like instability of the particle-hole excitations on the Fermi-surface etc. Presumably these instabilities are resolved by
reconstruction of the Fermi-surface with (patches) of energy gaps. Coupling of
the damped transverse-excitations of charged-fermions to zero-point uctuations of the electromagnetic-elds produces an SFL which we study in section
5.1. The microscopic interactions necessary for the Landau-Pomeranchuk in15

It would indeed be a significant step forward if such a conjecture could be proven

to be true or if the conditions in which it is true were known.

30

stabilities and the critical properties near such instabilities have not been well
investigated, especially for fermions with a lattice potential.
It is also worth noting that some of the instabilities are disallowed in the
limit of translational invariance. Thus, for example, time-reversal breaking
states, such as the anyon-state [148,59] cannot be realized because in a
translationally invariant problem the current operator cannot be renormalized
by the interactions, as we have learnt from Eqs. (18), (33).
(ii) Critical regions of Large Q-Singularities: Landau theory concerns itself
only with long wavelength response and correlations. A Fermi-liquid may
have instabilities at a nonzero wave-vector, for example a charge-density wave
(CDW) or spin-density wave (SDW) instability. Only a microscopic calculation
can provide the conditions for such instabilities and therefore such conditions
can only be approximately derived. An important point to note is that they
arise perturbatively from repeated scattering between the quasiparticle parts
of G while the scattering vertices (irreducible interactions)are regular. The superconductive instability for any angular momentum is also an instability of
this kind. In general such instabilities are easily seen in RPA and/or t-matrix
calculations.
Singular Fermi-liquid behavior is generally expected to occur only in the critical regime of such instabilities [112,156]. If the transition temperature Tc is
nite then there is usually a stable low temperature phase in which unstable
modes are condensed to an order parameter, translational symmetry is broken, and gaps arise in part or all of the Fermi-surface. For excitations on the
surviving part of the Fermi-surface, Fermi-liquid theory is usually again valid.
The uctuations in the critical regime are classical, i.e. with characteristics
frequency f kB Tc .
If the transition is tuned by some external parameter so that it occurs at
zero temperature, one obtains, as illustrated already in Fig. 1, a Quantum
Critical Point (QCP). If the transition is approached at T = 0 as a function
of the external parameter, the uctuations are quantum-mechanical, while if
it is approached as a function of temperature for the external parameter at its
critical value, the uctuations have a characteristic energy proportional to the
temperature. A large region of the phase diagram near QCPs often carries
SFL properties. We shall discuss such phenomena in detail in section 6.
(iii) Special Symmetries: The Cooper instability at q = 0, Fig. 7(c), is due to
the nesting of the Fermi-surface in the particle-particle channel. Usually indications of nite q-CDW or SDW singularities are evident pertubatively from
Fig. 7(a) or Fig. 7(b) for special Fermi-surfaces, nested in some q-direction
in particle-hole channels. One-dimensional fermions are perfectly nested in
both particle-hole channels and particle-particle channels (Figs. 7(a)-(c)) and
31

hence they are both logarithmically singular. Pure one-dimensional fermions

also have the extra conservation law that right going and left going momenta
are separately conserved. These introduce special features to the SFL of onedimensional fermions such as the introduction of extra quantum numbers.
These issues are discussed in section 4.9. Several soluble impurity problems
with special symmetries have SFL properties. Their study can be illuminating
and we discuss them in section 3.
(iv) Long-Range Interactions: Breakdown of Landau Fermi-liquid may come
about through long-range interactions, either in the bare Hamiltonian through
the irreducible interaction or through a generated eective interaction. The
latter, of course, happens in the critical regime of phase transitions such as
discussed above. Coulomb interactions will not do for the former because of
screening of charge uctuations. The fancy way of saying this is that the
longitudinal electromagnetic mode acquires mass in a metal. The latter is not
true for current uctuations or transverse electromagnetic modes which due
to gauge invariance must remain massless. This is discussed in section 5.1,
where it is shown that no metal at low enough temperature is a Fermi-liquid.
However, the cross-over temperature is too low to be of experimental interest.
An o-shoot of an SFL through current uctuations is the search for extra (induced) conservation laws for some quantities to keep their uctuations
massless. This line of investigation may be referred to generically as gauge theories. Extra conservation laws imply extra quantum numbers and associated
orthogonality. We discuss these in section 5.2. The one-dimensional interacting electron problem and the Quantum Hall eect problems may be usefully
thought of in these terms.
(v) Singularities in the Irreducible Interactions: In all the possibilities discussed in (i)-(iii) above the irreducible interactions (1) dened after Eq.
(27)are regular and not too large. As noted after Eq. (30) this is necessary to
get a regular . When these conditions are satised the conceivable singularities arise only from the repeated scattering of low-energy particle-hole (or
particle-particle) pairs) as in Eq. (32) or its equivalent for large momentum
transfers.
A singularity in the irreducible interaction of course invalidates the basis of
Landau theory. Such singularities imply that the parts of the problem considered harmless perturbatively because they involve the incoherent and high
energy parts of the single-particle spectral weight as in Eq. (30) are, in fact,
not so. This is also true if (1) is large enough that the solution of Eq. (30) is
singular. Very few investigations of such processes exist.
How can an irreducible interaction be singular when the bare interaction is
perfectly regular? We know of two examples:
32

Fig. 16. A model band structure for a solid with more than one atom per unit
cell. Actually in CaB6 where excitonic singularities have been invoked to produce
a ferromagnetic state [280] there are three equivalent points in the Brillouin zone
where the conduction band minima and the valence band maxima occur.

In disordered metals the density correlations are diusive with characteristic

frequency scaling with q 2 . The irreducible interactions made from the diffusive uctuations and interactions are singular in d = 2. This gives rise to a
new class of SFLs which are discussed in section 8. One nds that in this case
the singularity in the cross-particle-hole channel (the channel dierent from
the one through which the irreducibility of (1) is dened) feeds back into a
singularity in (1) . This is very special because the cross-channel is integrated
over and the singularity in it must be very strong for this to be possible.
The second case concerns the particle singularities in the irreducible interactions because of excitonic singularities. Usually the excitonic singularities due
to particle-hole between dierent bands occur at a nite energy and do not
introduce low energy singularities. But if the interactions are strong enough
these singularities occur near zero frequency. In eect eliminating high energy
degrees of freedom generates low energy irreducible singular vertices.
Consider, for example, the band-structure of a solid with more than one atom
per unit cell with (degenerate) valence band maxima and minima at the same
points in the Brillouin zone, as in Fig. (16) .
Let the conduction band be partially lled, and the energy dierence between
and the valence band marked E0 in Fig. 16 be much smaller than the attractive particle-hole interactions V between states in the valence (v) band and
the conduction band (c). For any nite V excitonic resonances form from scattering between v and c states, as in the X-ray edge problem to be discussed
in section 3.5. For large enough V such resonances occur at asymptotically
low energy so that the Fermi-liquid description of states near the chemical
potential in terms of irreducible interaction among the c-states is invalid. The
eective irreducible interactions among the low-energy states integrate over
33

the excitonic resonance and will in general be singular if the resonance is near
zero-energy.
Such singularities require interactions above a critical magnitude and are
physically and mathematically of an unfamiliar nature. In a 2-band onedimensional model, exact numerical calculations have established the importance of such singularities [237,234].
Recently it has been found that CaB6 or SrB6 with low density of trivalent
Eu or quadrivalent Ce ions substituting for (Ca, Sr) is a ferromagnet [280].
The most plausible explanation [288,33,35] is that this is a realization of the
excitonic ferromagnetism predicted by Volkov et al. [263]. The instability to
such a state occurs because the energy to create a hole in the valence band and
a particle in the conduction band above the fermi-energy goes to zero if the
attractive particle-hole (interband)interactions are large enough. This problem
has been investigated only in the mean-eld approximation. Fluctuations in
the critical regime of such a transition are well worth studying.
Excitonically induced singularities in the irreducible interactions are also responsible for the Marginal Fermi-liquid state of CuO metals in a theory to
be discussed in section 7.

Local Fermi-Liquids & Local Singular Fermi-Liquids

In this section we discuss a particular simple form of Fermi-liquid formed by

electrons interacting with a dilute concentration of magnetic impurity. Many
of the concepts of Fermi-liquid theory are revisited in this problem. Variants of
the problem provide an interesting array of soluble problems of SFL behavior
and illustrate some of the principal themes of this article.

3.1 The Kondo Problem

The Kondo problem is at the same time one of the simplest and one of the
most subtle examples of the eects of strong correlation eects in electronic
systems. The experiments concern metals with a dilute concentration of magnetic impurities. In the Kondo model one considers only a single impurity; the
Hamiltonian then is
H=t

X
hiji

ci cj + JS c0 c0 ,

34

(41)

where (ci , ci ) denote the annihilation and creation operators of a conduction

electron at site i with projection in the z-direction of spin . The second
term is the exchange interaction between a single magnetic impurity at the
origin (with spin S = 1/2) and a conduction electron spin.
When the exchange constant J > 0 the system is a Fermi-liquid. Although
not often discussed, the ferromagnetic (J < 0) variant of this problem is one
of the simplest examples of a singular Fermi-liquid.
There are two seemingly simple starting points for the problem: (i) J = 0:
This turns out to describe the unstable high temperature xed point 16 . The
term proportional to J is a marginal operator about the high temperature
xed point because as discovered by Kondo[138] in a third order perturbation
calculation, the eective interaction acquires a singularity J 3 /t2 ln(t/). (ii)
t = 0: The perturbative expansion about this point is well behaved. This turns
out to describe the low temperature Fermi-liquid xed point. One might be
surprised by this, considering that typically the bare t/J is of order 10+3 . But
such is the power of singular renormalizations 17 .
16

For the reader unfamiliar with reading a renormalization group diagram like
that of Fig. 17(b) or 18, the following explanation might be helpful. The flow in a
renormalization group diagram signifies the following. The original problem, with
bare parameters, corresponds to the starting point in the parameter space in which
we plot the flow. Then we imagine integrating out the high energy scales (e.g.
virtual excitations to high energy states); effectively, this means that we consider
the system at lower energy (and temperature) scales by generating effective Hamiltonians with new parameters so that the low energy properties remain invariant.
The length along the flow direction is essentially a measure of how many energy
scales have been integrated out typically, as in the Kondo problem, this decrease
is logarithmic along the trajectory. Thus, the regions towards which the flow points
signify the effective parameters of the model at lower and lower temperatures. Fixed
points towards which all trajectories flow in a neighborhood describe the universal
low temperature asymptotic behavior of the class of models to which the model
under consideration belongs. When a fixed point of the flow is unstable, it means
that a model whose bare parameters initially lie close to it flows away from this
point towards a stable fixed point; hence it has a low-temperature behavior which
does not correspond to the model described by the unstable fixed point. A fixed line
usually corresponds with a class of models which have some asymptotic behavior,
e.g. an exponent, which varies continuously.
17 A particularly lucid discussion of the renormalization procedure may be found
in [143]. Briefly, the procedure consists in generating a sequence of Hamiltonians
with successively lower energy cut-offs that reproduce the low-energy spectrum. All
terms allowed by symmetry besides those in the bare Hamiltonian are kept. The
coeffcients of these terms scale with the cut-off. Those that decrease proportionately
to the cut-off or change only logarithmically, are coefficients of marginal operators,
those that grow/decrease (algebraically) of relevant/irrelevant operators. Marginal
operators are marginally relevant or marginally irrelevant. Upon renormalization the

35

The interaction between conduction electrons and the localized electronic level
is not a direct spin interaction. It originates from quantum-mechanical charge
uctuations that (through the Pauli principle) depend on the relative spin orientation. To see this explicitly it is more instructive to consider the Anderson
model [19] in which

H=t

X
hiji

ci cj + d

c0 c0 + Uc0, c0, c0, c0, +

(Vk ck, c0, + h.c.)

(42)

k,

The last term in this Hamiltonian is the hybridization between the localized
impurity state and the conduction electrons, in which spin is conserved. In the
particle-hole symmetric case, d = U/2 is the one-hole state on the impurity
site in the Hartree-Fock approximation and the one-particle state has the
energy U/2.
Following a perturbative treatment in the limit Vt , VU 1 the Anderson model
reduces to the Kondo Hamiltonian with an eective exchange constant Jef f
(V 2 /t)2 /U.
The Anderson model has two simple limits, which are illustrated in Fig. 17:
(i) V = 0: This describes a local moment with Curie susceptibility 2B /T .
This limit is the correct point of departure for an investigation for the high
temperature regime. As noted one soon encounters the Kondo divergences.
(ii) U = 0: In this limit the impurity forms a resonance of width V 2 /t
at the chemical potential which in the particle-hole symmetric case is halfoccupied. The ground state is a spin singlet. This limit is the correct starting
point for an examination of the low temperature properties (T TK ). A
temperature independent contribution to the susceptibility and a linear contribution to the specic heat ( N(0)T /) are contributed by the resonant
state. Hence the name local Fermi-Liquid.
The conceptually hard part of the problem was to realize that (ii) is the correct stable low temperature xed point and the technically hard problem is to
derive the passage from the high-temperature regime to the low-temperature
regime. This was rst done correctly by Wilson [273] through the invention of
the Numerical Renormalization Group (and almost correctly by Anderson and
flow is to the strong coupling J = fixed point, see Fig. 17. The terms generated
from t 6= 0 serve as irrelevant operators at this fixed point; this means that they do
not affect the ground state but determine the measurable low-energy properties.

36

Fig. 17. (a) Hartree-Fock excitation spectrum of the Anderson model in the two
limits of zero hybridization, V = 0 and zero interaction, U = 0. (b) Renormalization
group flow of the Kondo problem.

Yuval [22,23] by analytic methods). The analysis showed that under Renormalization Group scaling transformations the ratio (J/t) increases monotonically
as illustrated in Fig. 17(b) continuous RG ows are observed from the high
temperature extreme (i) to the low temperature extreme (ii) and a smooth
crossover between between the two regimes occurs at the Kondo temperature
TK t exp(t/2J).

(43)

Because all ow is towards the strong-coupling xed point, universal forms

for the thermodynamic functions are found. For example, the specic heat Cv
and the susceptibility scale as
= 2B f (T /TK ) ,

Cv = T fc (T /TK ),

(44)

where the f s are universal scaling functions.

An important theoretical result is that compared to a non-interacting resonant level at the chemical potential, the ratio of the magnetic susceptibility
enhancement to the specic heat enhancement,
RW =

/
Cv /Cv

37

(45)

for spin 1/2 impurities at T TK is precisely 2 [273,184]. In a noninteracting

model, this ratio, nowadays called the Wilson ratio, is equal to 1, since both
and Cv are proportional to the density of states N(0). Thus the Wilson ratio
is a measure of the importance of correlation eects. It is in fact the analogue
of the Landau parameter F0a of Eq. (18).
3.2 Fermi-liquid Phenemenology for the Kondo problem
Following Wilsons solution [273], Nozi`eres [184] showed that the low-temperature properties of the Kondo problem can be understood simply through
a (local) Fermi-liquid framework. This is a beautiful example of the application of the concept of analyticity and of symmetry principles about a xed
point. We present the key arguments below. For the application of this line of
approach to the calculation of a variety of properties we refer the reader to
papers by Nozi`eres and Blandin [184,185].
The properties of a local impurity can be characterized by the energy-dependent
s-wave phase shift (), which in general also depends on the spin of the conduction electron being scattered. In the spirit of Fermi-liquid theory the phase
shift may be written in terms of the deviation of the distribution function n()
of conduction electrons from the equilibrium distribution,
() = 0 () +

(, )n ( ) + ... .

(46)

About a stable xed point the energy dependence is analytic near the chemical
potential ( = 0), so that we may expand
(, ) = + ... .

0 () = 0 + + ... ,

(47)

Just as the Landau parameters are expressed in terms of symmetric and antisymmetric parts, we can write
= = s + a ,

, = = s a .

(48)

Taken together, this leaves three parameters , s and a to determine the

low-energy properties. Nozi`eres [184] showed that in fact there is only one
independent parameter (say which is of O(1/TK ), with a prefactor which
can be obtained by comparing with Wilsons detailed numerical solution). To
show this note that by the Pauli principle same spin states do not interact,
therefore [184]
= s + a = 0 .
38

(49)

Secondly a shift of the chemical potential by and a simultaneous increase in

n by N(0) should have no eect on the phase shift, since the Kondo-eect
is tied to the chemical potential. Therefore according to 46) and (47)
[ + N(0)s ] = 0 ,

= s = /N(0) .

(50)

Thirdly, one may borrow from Wilsons solution that the xed point has 0 =
/2. This expresses that the tightly bound spin singlet state formed of the
impurity spin and conduction electron spin completely blocks the impurity
site to other conduction electrons; this in turn implies maximal scattering
and phase shift of /2 for the eective scattering potential [184]. In other
words, it is a strong-coupling xed-point where one conduction electron state
is pushed below the chemical potential in the vicinity of the impurity to form
a singlet resonance with the impurity spin. One may now calculate all physical
properties in term of . In particular, one nds Cv /Cv = 2/(V N(0) and a
similar expression for the enhancement of ,such that the Wilson ratio of 2.

3.3 Ferromagnetic Kondo problem and the anisotropic Kondo problem

The ferromagnetic Kondo problem provides us with the simplest example of
SFL behavior. We will discuss this below after relating the problem to a general
X-ray edge problem in which the connection to the so-called orthogonality
catastrophe is clearer. As discussed in Sec.2, orthogonality plays an important
role in SFLs generally.
we start with the anisotropic generalization of the Kondo Hamiltonian, which
is the proper starting model for a perturbative scaling analysis [21,98],

H =t

hiji,

ci cj +

Xh
k,k

J S + ck ck + S ck ck +


+Jz S z ck,ck , ck,ck ,

i

(51)

Long before the solution of the Kondo problem, perturbative Renormalization

Group for the eective vertex coupling constants J and Jz as a function of
temperature were obtained [21,98]. The scaling relation between them is found
to be exact to all orders in the J s:
(Jz2 J2 ) = const,

(J+ = J ) .

(52)

In the ow diagram 18 we show the scaling trajectories for the anisotropic

problem. In the antiferromagnetic regime the ows continuously veer towards
39

Fig. 18. Renormalization group flows for the Kondo problem, displaying the line of
critical points for the ferromagnetic problem and the flow towards the fixed point
= J for the antiferromagnetic problem.
J
z

larger and larger (J , Jz ) values; at the resulting xed point (J , Jz ) =

(, ) singlets form between the local moment and the conduction electrons.
The ferromagnetic regime spans the region satisfying the inequalities Jz < 0
and |Jz | J . Upon reducing the bandwidth the coupling parameters ow
towards negative Jz values. Observe the line of fixed points on the negative Jz
axis. Such a continuous line is also seen in the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition
[139] of the two-dimensional XY model. Moreover, in both problems continuously varying exponents in physical properties are obtained along these lines
(in fact, the renormalization group ow equations of the Kondo model for
small coupling are mathematically identical to those for the XY model). This
is an instance of a zero temperature Quantum Critical line. The physics of the
Quantum Critical line has to do with an Orthogonality Catastrophe which
we describe next. Such orthogonalities are an important part of the physics of
SFLs generally.

3.4 Orthogonality Catastrophe

As we saw in section 2, a Fermi-liquid description is appropriate so long as
the spectrum retains a coherent single particle piece of nite weight Z > 0. So
if by some miracle the evaluation of Z reduces to an overlap integral between
two orthogonal wave functions then the system is a SFL.
In the thermodynamic (N ) limit, such a miracle is more generic than
might appear at rst sight. In fact, such an orthogonality catastrophe arises
if the injection of an infinitely massive particle in more than one dimension
produces an eective nite range scattering potential for the remaining N
electrons [20] (see Sec.(4.9). Such an orthogonality is exact only in the ther40

modynamic limit: The single particle wave functions are not orthogonal. It
is only the overlap between the ground state formed by their Slater determinants 18 which vanishes as N tends to innity.
More quantitatively, if the injection of the additional particle produces an
s-wave phase shift 0 for the single particle wave functions (all N of them),
(kr) =

sin kr
sin(kr + 0 )

kr
kr

(53)

then an explicit computation of the Slater determinants reveals that their

overlap diminishes as
2

hN |N
i N 0 / .

(54)

Here |N i is the determinant Fermi sea wave function for N particles and

|N
i is the wavefunction of the system after undergoing a phase shift by the
local perturbation produced by the injected electron 19 .
Quite generally such an orthogonality (Z = 0) arises also if two N particle
states of a system possess dierent quantum numbers and almost the same
energy. These new quantum numbers might be associated with novel topological excitations. This is indeed the case in the Quantum Hall Liquid where
new quantum numbers are associated with fractional charge excitations. The
SFL properties of the interacting one-dimensional fermions (Section 4) may
also be looked on as due to orthogonality. Often orthogonality has the eect of
making a quantum many-body problem approach the behavior of a classical
problem. This will be one of the leitmotifs in this review. We turn rst to a
problem where this orthogonality is well understood to lead to experimental
consequences, although not at low energies.

3.5 X-ray Edge singularities

The term X-ray edge singularity is used for the line shape for absorption
in metals by creating a hole in an atomic core-level and a particle in the
conduction band above the chemical potential. In the non-interacting particle
description of this process, the absorption starts at the threshold frequency
18

The results hold true also for interacting fermions, at least when Fermi-liquid
description is valid for both of the states
19 Through the Friedel sum rule / has a physical meaning; it is the charge that
0
needs to be transported from infinity to the vicinity of the impurity in order to
screen the local potential [78].

41

Fig. 19. Absorption lineshape for transitions between a lower dispersionless level
and a conduction band, (a) for zero interaction between the conduction electrons
and local level, and (b) for small interaction.

D , as sketched in Fig. 19. In this case, a Fermi edge reecting the density
of unoccupied states in the conduction band is expected to be visible the
spectrum.
However, when a hole is generated in the lower level, the potential that the
conduction electrons see is dierent. The relevant Hamiltonian is now


H = d d d

X
1X
1
1
+
k ck ck +
V (k, k ) ck ck
2
L k,k
2
k




d d

1
2

, (55)

where spin indices have been suppressed. The operators (d, d) annihilate or
create holes in the core level, which is taken to be dispersionless. The rst two
terms in the Hamiltonian represent the unperturbed energies of the core hole
and the free electrons. The last term depicts the screened Coulomb interaction
between the conduction electrons and the hole in the core level.
As a consequence of the interactions, the line shape is quite dierent. This is
actually an exactly solvable problem [183]. There are two kinds of eects, (a)
excitonic the particle and the hole attract, leading to a shift of the edge
and a sharpening of the edge singularity and (b) an orthogonality eect of
the type just discussed above, which smoothens the edge irrespective of the
sign of the interaction. This changes the absorption spectrum to that of Fig.
19(b) in the presence of interactions. The form of the singularity is [158,183]
0

2
0

A() (
D )2 + 2 .

(56)

The exponent 02 / 2 is a consequence of the orthogonality catastrophe overlap

integral; the exponent (20 /) is due to the excitonic particle hole interactions. If the hole has nite mass we have a problem with recoil which is not
exactly solvable, but we know the essential features of the solution. As we will
discuss later in section 4.9, recoil removes the singularity in two and three dimensions and the absorption edge acquires a characteristic width of the order
42

of the dispersion of the hole band. If the hole moves only in one dimension,
the singularity is not removed.
3.6 A Spinless Model with Finite Range Interactions
A model, which is a generalization of the Ferromagnetic Kondo problem and in
which the low-energy physics is dominated by the orthogonality catastrophe,
is given by the following Hamiltonian :

H=

X
k,l

t X

k k,l
k,l +
(k,0d + h.c.)
L k



1X
1
1

+
d d
.
Vl k,l k,l
L k,k
2
2

(57)

The operators (, ) are the annihilation and creation operators of spinless

conduction electrons with kinetic energy k , while as before the d operators create or annihilate electrons in the localized level. The local chemical potential
has been set to zero (d = 0) and the Hamiltonian is particle-hole symmetric.
The new index l is an orbital angular momentum index (or a channel index).
Hybridization conserves point-group symmetry, so the localized orbital hybridizes with only one channel (l = 0). By contrast, the impurity couples to
all channels via the interaction Vl . As we are summing over all moments (k, k )
this interaction is local.
This problem may be mapped onto the anisotropic Kondo model [103]. Indeed
the transformation
d S ,

J , 0
t
,
2a

1
Sz ,
2

2Vl 2Jz,l 2vF ( 2 1)l,0 ,

d d

(58)

produces

H=

X
1
Jz,l Sz sz,l .
k ck,,l ck,,l + J,0 (S s
l + h.c.) +
2
l
k,,l
X

(59)

Here a is short distance cuto. In the resulting (anisotropic multi-channel)

Kondo Hamiltonian the spin operators S and sl portray charge excitations of
the local orbital and conduction band; the spin index in the resulting Kondo
Hamiltonian should now be regarded as a charge label. Physically, this mapping is quite natural. The impurity may or may not have an electron, this is
43

akin to having spin up or spin down. Similarly, the kinetic hybridization term
transforms into a spin ip interaction term of the form (S d + h.c.). As Vl
couples to the occupancy of the impurity site,we might anticipate Jz to scale
with Vl . The additional correction (2vF ( 2 1)l,0) originates from the
subtle transformation taking the original fermionic system into an eective
spin model.
This problem has been solved by renormalization group methods, See Fig. 20.
But simple arguments based on the X-ray edge singularity, orthogonality and
recoil give the correct qualitative physics. When t = 0, the problem is that
of the X-ray edge Hamiltonian (with d = 0). When t is nite, the charge
at the impurity orbital uctuates (the impurity site alternately empties and
lls). This generates, in turn, a uctuating potential. The X-ray absorption
spectrum is the Fourier transform of the particle-hole pair correlator
() h (t)d(t)d (0)(0)i .

(60)

This quantity, which is none other than the hybridization correlation function,
should display the X-ray edge characteristics for large frequencies ( > ef f )
where the eect of recoil is unimportant:
() 0 (/W ) ; =

20 X l2
+
.
2

(61)

The threshold frequency ef f is determined by the recoil energy. W is the

bandwidth. The bare hybridization width 0 t2 /W . The exponent in the
singularity contains an exitonic shift (20 /) as well as an orthogonality
P
contribution ( l l2 / 2 ). The recoil is cut o by ef f . For < ef f the
electron gas becomes insensitive to the change in the potential. As the X-ray
edge singularity is cut o at = O(ef f ), self-consistency implies that
ef f = ( = ef f ) .

(62)

This leads to the identication

ef f = W (0 /W ) ,

= 1/(1 ) ,

(63)

as W .

(64)

so that for
<1,

ef f 0

For < 1, a singular Fermi-liquid emerges in which the hybridization of the

localized d-orbital with the electron gas scales to zero at zero frequency. The
44

actual value of determines the singular properties at low energy or temperature. In the single channel problem such a scenario occurs if the potential V0
is suciently attractive. On mapping to the spin problem we nd that this region corresponds to the singular Fermi-liquid Ferromagnetic Kondo problem.
The scaling of the hybridization to zero corresponds, in the spinmodel, to
J 0. In a renormalization group language, the ows will impinge on the
line of xed points (J = 0, Jz < 0). In this regime, we recover, once again, a
continuous set of exponents.
If the number of channels is large enough, the orthogonality catastrophe associated with the change in the number of particles on the impurity site is
suciently strong to drive the hybridization to zero even for the case of repulsive interactions V or antiferromagnetic Jz,l .
In the singular regime various correlation functions may be evaluated [103].
For instance, the Greens function of the localized impurity
Gd ( ) = < T d( )d (0) > 0 e

(Vl /vF )2 ln(| |+a)

(65)

The orthogonality induced by the uctuation in the occupation number of the

impurity site leads to the decay of the correlation function with a nonuniversal
exponent. Because of this orthogonality catastrophe the system behaves as a
singular Fermi-liquid. In the vicinity of the t = 0 xed point, the self energy
due to hybridization
1 .

(66)

A line of critical points for < 1 is found. This bears a resemblance to

the Kosterlitz-Thouless phenomenon [139]. The analogue to the emergence
of vortices in the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition are instantons topological
excitations which are built of a succession of spin ips in time on the impurity
site.

3.7 A model for Mixed-Valence Impurity

We next consider a slightly more realistic model [190,225,229]

H=

kl ckl ckl + d nd, nd, + t

k,,l

k,k ,l

Vkkl

1
nd
2

X

 "X

45

d ck0 + h.c.

ckl ck l

1 .

(67)

Fig. 20. The Renormalization flow diagram for the model with finite range interactions according to [103]. The initial values are Jx,0 = 0, J,0 = 0.5, and Jx,l varies
from 0 to 1 in increments of 0.05. When Jz,l becomes large enough (i.e. when V is
large enough) the flow veers from the usual Kondo fixed point to a zero hybridization
(J,0 = 0) singular Fermi liquid.

In this model both spin and charge may be altered on the impurity site. This
enhanced number of degrees of freedom implies that the states need to be
specied by more quantum numbers. This also allows, a priori, for higher
degeneracy. In the following N screening channels, all of equal strength V ,
will be assumed. In the U limit the spectrum of the impurity site may
be diagonalized. The two lowest states are

d
,
4
2

1/2
!2
N

V
d
|0i = |, 0i, with energy E =

+ t2 ,
2
4

0i = |0, 1i, with energy E =

(68)

where in the bras, the rst entry is the charge and spin of the impurity spin
and the second one is the compensating
charge in the screening channels.
Other states are elevated by energies O(V / N). The states satisfy the Friedel

screening sum rule by having a small phase shift 2N

in each of the N channels.
The parameter V can be tuned to produce a degeneracy between the two states
(E = E ) the mixed valence condition. The enhanced degeneracy produces
Singular Fermi-liquid like behavior 20 . A perturbative calculation for small
20

There is a singularity only in the local charge response at the impurity, not in the
magnetic response. In this respect, the results of ([229]) are not completely correct

46

yields a self-energy
[ ln + isgn()] + O[( ln )2] .

(69)

As a speculative note we remark that this physics might be of relevance to

quantum dot problems. Quantum dots are usually described in terms of the
Anderson model. However, there are certainly other angular momentum channels whereby the local charge on the dot and the external environment can
interact. As the external potential in the leads is varied one is forced to pass
through a potential in which this mixed valence condition must be satised.
At this potential the aforementioned singular behavior should be observed.
3.8 Multi-channel Kondo problem
Blandin and Nozi`eres [185] invented the multichannel Kondo problem and
gave convincing arguments for a local singular Fermi-liquid behavior of it.
Since then it has been solved by a multitude of sophisticated methods. For an
overview of these and of applications of the multichannel Kondo problem, we
refer to [212].
The multichannel Kondo problem is the generalization of the Kondo problem
to the case in which the impurity spin has arbitrary spin S and is coupled to
n channels of conduction electrons. The Hamiltonian is
HmcK = t

n X
X
=1 i<j

() ()

()

()

ci cj + JS c0 c0 .

(70)

Here is the channel index. Degeneracy, the key to SFL behavior, is enforced
through equal antiferromagnetic coupling J > 0 for all the channels. When
the couplings to the various channels are not all the same, at low enough
temperatures a crossover to local Fermi-liquid behavior in the channel with
the largest J always occurs [7]. This crossover temperature is in general quite
large compared to TK because channel asymmetry is a relevant perturbation
about the symmetric xed point. Therefore in comparing this theory with SFL
behavior in experiments, one should ensure that one is above the crossover
temperature.
The simple Kondo problem is the case 2S = 1 = n. In this case at low
temperatures a singlet state is formed of the impurity state and the conduction
electron electrons in the appropriate channel. In the general multi-channel case
in which 2S = n, the physics is essentially the same, since there are exactly
the right number of conduction electron channels to compensate the impurity
spin at low temperatures. Thus, at low temperatures an eective spin 0 state
47

Fig. 21. In a multichannel problem, a (Hunds rule coupled) spin S is compensated

by total spin S1 (= n/2) in n different conduction electron channels leaving a net
uncompensated spin as shown, or exact compensation or over-compensation when
special properties may arise as discussed in the text.

is formed again, and the properties of the compensated Kondo problem 2S = n

at nite temperature is that of crossover from a weakly interacting problem
above the Kondo temperature TK to a strongly interacting problem below TK .
The physics of the underscreened Kondo problem 2S > n is dierent 21 . In
this case, there are not enough conduction electron spins to compensate the
impurity spin. As a result, when the temperature is lowered and the eective
coupling increases, only a partial compensation of the impurity spin occurs by
conduction electrons with spin opposite to it. As depicted in Fig. 21, a net spin
in the same direction as the impurity spin then remains at the impurity site.
Since the conduction electrons with their spin in the same directions as the
impurity spin can then still make virtual excitations by hopping on that site
while the site is completely blocked for conduction electrons with opposite
spin, a net ferromagnetic coupling remains between the remaining eective
spin and the conduction electrons. As a result, the low temperature physics of
the underscreened Kondo problem is that of the ordinary ferromagnetic Kondo
problem. To be more precise, the approach to the xed point is analogous to
that in the ferromagnetic Kondo problem along the boundary Jz = J ,
because the impurity must decouple (become pseudo-classical) at the xed
point.
In the overscreened Kondo problem 2S < n, there are more channels than
necessary to compensate the impurity spin. At low temperatures, all n channels tend to compensate the impurity spin due to the Kondo eect. Channel
democracy now causes an interesting problem. As the eective interaction
J scales to stronger values, a local eective spin with direction opposite to
the impurity spin results. This eective spin must have an eective antiferromagnetic interaction with the conduction electrons, since now the virtual
excitations of conduction electrons with spins opposite to the effective local
spin lower their energy. This then gives a new Kondo problem with a new
21

Since it is hard to imagine that the angular momentum states of the impurity are
larger than of the conduction electron states about the impurity, such models may
be regarded of purely theoretical interest. See however Sec (6.5)

48

Fig. 22. Flow diagram for the degenerate over-screened Kondo problem exhibiting
a critical point.

eective interaction, and so on. Of course, in reality one does not get a succession of antiferromagnetic Kondo problems the net eect is that a new
stable nite-J xed point appears. As sketched in Fig. 22, the renormalized
eective interaction ows to this xed point both from the strong-coupling as
well as from the weak-coupling side. One can understand this intuitively from
the above picture: if one starts with a large initial value of J, then in the next
order of perturbation theory about it, the interaction is smaller, since in perturbation theory the eective interaction due to virtual excitations decreases
with increasing J. This means that J scales to smaller values. Likewise, if we
start from small J, then initially J increases due to the Kondo scaling, but
once J becomes suciently large, the rst eect which tends to decrease J
become more and more important. The nite-J xed point leads to nontrivial
exponents for the low-temperature behavior of quantities like the specic heat,
Cv
T

T
TK


 n2
n+2

(71)

For n = 2, the power law behavior on the right hand side is replaced by a ln T
term.
Another way of thinking about the problem is in the spirit of Wilsons renormalization group: Consider the problem of two channels interacting with a
S = 1/2 impurity. The conduction states can be expressed as linear combinations of concentric orbitals of conduction electrons around the impurity. These
successive orbitals peak further and further away from the impurity. Consider
rst the exchange coupling of the orbitals in each of the two channels peaking
at the impurity site. Each of them has S = 1/2. Only one linear combination
of the two channels, call it red, can couple, while the other (blue) does not. So
after the singlet with the impurity is formed, we are left with a S = 1/2, color
blue problem. We must now consider the interaction of this eective impurity
with the next orbital and so on. It is obvious that to any order we will be
left with a spin 1/2 problem in a color. Conformal eld theory methods rst
showed that the ground state is left with 1/2 ln 2 impurity. A nice application
of the bosonization method [83] identies the red and blue above as linear
combinations of the fermions in the two channels so that one is purely real,
the other purely imaginary. The emergence of new types of particles the
Majorana fermions in this case often happens at Singular Fermi-liquids.
As a detailed calculation conrms [7], the J1 = J2 xed point is unstable,
and the ow is like sketched in Fig. 24. This means that the J1 = J2 xed
49

S = 1=2
S = 1=2
S = 1=2

S = 1=2

Fig. 23. Effective shells in Energy space in Wilsons method. The first shell integrates
over a fraction of the top of the band, the next shell of the rest, and so on. In
the two-channel S = 1/2 problem, a S = 1/2 effective impurity is left at every stage
of interpretation.

point is a Quantum Critical Point: in the T J1 /J2 phase diagram, there is a

critical point at T = 0, J1 /J2 = 1. Moreover, it conrms that asymmetry in the
couplings is a relevant perturbation, so that the SFL behavior is unstable to
any introduction of dierences between the couplings to the dierent channels.
The crossover temperature T below which two-channel behavior is replaced
by the approach to the Kondo xed point is [7]


i2 

(J1 J2 )/J
T = O TK (J)

(72)

where J = (J1 + J2 )/2.

The overscreened Kondo problem illustrates that the SFL behavior is associated with the occurrence of degeneracy: the critical point requires degeneracy
of the two orthogonal channels.
An interesting application of the two-channel Kondo problem is obtained by
considering the spin label to play the role of the channel index, while the
Kondo coupling is in the orbital angular momentum or crystal eld states
for impurities at symmetry sites in crystals [135,69,212]. Another possibility
that has been considered is that of scattering of conduction electrons of twolevel tunneling centers with dierent angular momentum states [287]. In this
case, the tunneling model translates into a model with x and z coupling only,
but this model ows towards a Kondo-type model with equal x and y spin
coupling. For both types of proposed applications, one has to worry about the
breaking of the symmetry, and about the question of how dilute the system
has to be for a Kondo-type model to be realistic. Interesting results in the
tunneling conductance of two metals through a narrow constriction, shown in
Fig. 25 appear to bear resemblance to the properties expected of a degenerate
50

Fig. 24. Flow in temperature-anisotropy plane for the two-channel Kondo problem
with coupling constant J1 and J2 .

two-channel Kondo eect [205,70], but this interpretation is not undisputed

[274,206]. Applications to impurities in heavy fermions will be briey discussed
in section 6.4.

3.9 The Two-Kondo-Impurities Problem

In a metal with a nite concentration of magnetic impurities, an important
question is what the (weak) interaction between the magnetic impurities does
to the Kondo physics that the eect might be substantial is already clear
from the fact that the Kondo eect is seen in logarithmic corrections about
the high-temperature local moment xed point while the RKKY interaction
between the moments mediated by the conduction electrons occur as a power
1
law correction 22 . Stated simply TK N 1(0) exp( N (0)J
) while the RKKY in2
teraction I J N(0). The existence of mixed-valence and heavy fermion
metals makes this much more than an academic question. The question of the
competition between these two eects, and in particular whether long range
magnetic order can arise, was rst posed by Varma [248] and by Doniach [76],
who gave the obvious answer that RKKY interactions will be ineective only
when the Kondo temperature below which the local spin at each impurity is
zero is much larger than the RKKY interaction I. Considering that JN(0) is
22

Stated technically, the Kondo Hamiltonian is a marginal operator while the

RKKY operator is a relevant operator about the local moment fixed point: In a
perturbation calculation the interaction produces corrections of O(1/T ) compared
to a ln(T ) correction of the Kondo effect.

51

Fig. 25. (a) Differential conductance G(V, T ) as a function of voltage V in measurements on metal point contacts by Ralph et al. [205], for various
temperatures ranging
from 0.4 K (bottom curve) to 5.6 K (upper curve). Note the V type behavior developing as the temperature decreases. (b) The zero bias (V = 0) conductance as
a
function of temperature for three different samples shows a G(0, T ) G(0, 0) T
behavior. The scaling behavior as a function of voltage and temperature is consistent
with two-channel Kondo behavior [205].

usually 1, this is unlikely for S = 1/2 problems, but for large S, as encountered typically in rare earths and actinides, it is possible in some cases. But
the vast majority of rare earths and actinide compounds show magnetic order
and no Heavy fermion magnetic behavior.
The two-Kondo-impurity problem serves as a rst step to understanding some
of the physics of heavy fermions. We will however only consider the S = 1/2
problem and work with unrealistic JN(0) so that the competition between
the Kondo eect and RKKY is possible.
In this subsection we will summarize the results [128,129,8,9,229] for the two
Kondo impurity problem; like the models we discussed above, this one also has
a quantum critical point at which SFL behavior is found. However as for other
impurity problems, an unrealistic symmetry must be assumed for a QCP and
attendant SFL behavior.
52

The two-Kondo-impurity Hamiltonian is dened as

H=t

X
k,

ck ck + J [S1 (r1 ) + S2 (r2 )] .

(73)

In this form, the problem has a symmetry with respect to the midpoint between the two impurity sites r1 and r2 , and hence one can dene even (e)
and odd (o) parity states relative to this point. In the approximation that
the k-dependence of the couplings is neglected [128] the two Kondo impurity
Hamiltonian can then be transformed to
H = Hnoninteracting +
+

X
kk

X
kk

(S1 + S2 ) Je cke cke + Jo ck o cko

h

Jm (S1 S2 ) ck e cko + ck o cke .

(74)

The coupling between the spin and orbital channels generates an eective
RKKY interaction
HRKKY = I0 (Je , Jo , Jm ) S1 S2

(75)

2
between the two impurity spins, with I0 = 2 ln 2(Je2 + Jo2 2Jm
) for t = 1.

The main results of a numerical Wilson-type renormalization group treatment

of this model are the following:
(i) For ferromagnetic coupling I0 > 0 or for a small antiferromagnetic coupling
I0 > 2.24TK , where TK is the Kondo temperature of the single-impurity
problem, one nds that there is a Kondo eect with
hS1 S2 i =
6 0,

(76)

unless I0 is very small, |I0 /TK | 1. Since for uncorrelated impurity spins
hS1 S2 i = 0, (76) expresses that although in the RG language the RKKY
interaction is an irrelevant perturbation, it is quite important in calculating
physical properties due to large corrections to scaling. Another feature of the
solution in this regime is the fact that the phase shift is /2 in both channels.
This means that at the xed point the even-parity channel and the odd-parity
channel have independent Kondo eects, each one having one electron pushed
below the chemical potential in the Kondo resonance. As discussed below, this
is due to particle-hole symmetry assumed in the model without it, only the
sum of the phase shifts in the two-channels is xed.
(ii) There is no Kondo eect for I0 < 2.24 TK . In this case, the coupling
between the impurities is so strong that the impurities form a singlet among
53

themselves and decouple from the conduction electrons. There is no phase shift
at the xed point. Also, in this case the total spin Stot = 0, but the impurity
spins become only singlet like, hS1 S2 i 3/4 for very strong coupling,
I0 2.24 TK . So again there are important corrections to scaling.
(iii) The point I0 = 2.24 TK is a true critical point, at which the staggered
susceptibility h(S1 S2 )2 i/T diverges. Moreover, at this point the specic heat
has a logarithmic correction to the linear T dependence, Cv T ln T , while
the impurity spin correlation function hS1 S2 i becomes equal to 1/4 at this
value.
Although the approximate Hamiltonian (74) has a true quantum critical point
with associated SFL behavior, we stress that the analysis shows that this critical point is destroyed by any cke cko coupling. A coupling of this type is not
particle-hole symmetric; since the approximate Hamiltonian (74) is particlehole symmetric, these terms are not generated under the renormalization
group ow for (74). The physical two-Kondo-impurity problem (73), on the
other hand, is not particle-hole symmetric. Therefore, the physical two Kondo
impurity problem does not have a true quantum critical point in other
words, when the two-Kondo-impurity Hamiltonian (73) is approximated by
(74) by ignoring k-independent interactions, relevant terms which destroy the
quantum critical point of the latter Hamiltonian are also dropped. This has
been veried in explicit analysis keeping the symmetry breaking terms [229].
An illuminating way to understand the result for the two-impurity Kondo
problem, is to note that the Hamiltonian can be written in the following form:

H=

even
HS=0

0
Hmix

0
odd
HS=0

0
Hmix

even
Hmix HS=1

Hmix
0

0
odd
HS=1

(77)

where S = S1 + S2 is the total impurity spin.

In this representation, the Hamiltonian Hmix couples the S = 0 and S = 1
state, and the following interpretation naturally emerges: for large antiferromagnetic values of I0 , HS=0 is lower in energy than HS=1 , while for large
ferromagnetic coupling I0 , the converse is true. The two-Kondo impurity coupling can thus be viewed as one in which by changing I0 , we can tune the
relative importance of the upper left block and the lower right block of the
Hamiltonian. In general, the two types of states are mixed by Hmix , but at the

xed point Hmix

0. This implies that there is a critical value of I0 /TK where
54

the S = 0 and S = 1 states are degenerate, and where SFL behavior occurs.
At this critical value, the impurity spin is a linear combination of a singlet and
triplet state with hS1 S2 i = 1/4 (i.e. a value in between the singlet value
-3/4 and the triplet value 1/4) and the singular low-energy uctuations give
rise to the anomalous specic heat behavior.
Within this scenario, the fact that the susceptibility is divergent at the critical point signals that a term H (S1 S2 ) lifts the spin degeneracy. Moreover,
the leading irrelevant operators about the xed point are all divergent at the
critical point of course, this just reects the breakdown of the Fermi-liquid
description.
The reason for Hmix 0 is as follows. It arises from the last term in (74) which
is not particle-hole symmetric because under even-odd interchange both the
spin term and the fermion electron terms change sign. At the Kondo xed
point, the leading operators must all be biquadratic in fermions. An Hmix in
that case would be of the form cke ck o and and such a term by itself would
break particle hole symmetry.
In the two-Kondo impurity problem, one encounters again the essentials of degeneracy for quantum critical points and the need for (unphysical) constraints
to preserve the singularity. Once again new types of quantum numbers can be
invoked in the excitations about the QCP.
From the point of view of understanding actual phenomena for problems with
a moderate concentration of impurities or in reference to heavy fermion compounds, the importance of the solution to the two-Kondo impurity problem is
the large correction to scaling found in the Wilson-type solution away from the
special symmetries required to have a QCP. These survive quite generally and
must be taken into account in constructing low-energy eective Hamiltonians
in physical situations.

SFL behavior for interacting fermions in one dimension

A variety of elegant mathematical techniques, including exact solutions in

certain nontrivial limits, have been employed to analyze the problem of interacting electrons in one dimension. We discuss the essential features of these
models here and their SFL properties. We also discuss whether the methods
and the results can be extended to higher dimensions.
Some cases where the models solved are experimentally realized include the
edge states of Quantum Hall liquids and quasi-one dimensional organic and
inorganic compounds [81,82]. In the latter case, the asymptotic low energy
55

properties are, however, unlikely to be those of the 1D models because of

the inevitable coupling to the other dimensions which proves to be a relevant
perturbation. Nonetheless, data on carbon nanotubes [73] discussed in section 4.11 show clear evidence of one-dimensional interacting electron physics.
Several one-dimensional spin chains problems can also be transformed into
problems of one-dimensional fermions [210].
Our aim in this chapter is to highlight the physics leading to the Singular
Fermi Liquid behavior and to present the most important results obtained.
Detailed reviews of the technical steps in the various solutions as well as
numerical calculations may be found in [109,231]. As pointed out already in
section 2.6, logarithmic singularities appear in the second order perturbative
calculation of the vertices in the 1D problem (both in the particle-hole and
particle-particle channels). We present the T = 0 phase diagram as obtained
by summing those singularities by perturbative RG. This will be followed by a
discussion of the results of the exact solution of the Tomonaga-Luttinger and
the more general model for special values of the coupling constants (along the
so called Luther-Emery line [155]).
One special feature of 1D physics is that the low energy excitations can be described by either fermions or bosons. The bosonic description of the TomonagaLuttinger model is especially attractive and will be presented below.
A distinctive feature of one dimensional physics is that single-particle as well
as multiple-particle correlation functions are expressible in terms of independent charge and spin excitations, which, in general, propagate with dierent
velocities 23 This feature has been shown to arise due to extra conservation
laws in one dimensions [50,167]. As we shall discuss, an extension of chargespin separation to higher dimensions is unlikely because there are no such
conservation laws.
The one dimensional singularities may be also seen as a manifestation of the
orthogonality catastrophe [20] that we discussed in section 3.4. We shall see
that this feature disappears in higher dimension due to the eects of recoil.

23

Even a Fermi-liquid displays distinct energy scales for charge and spin (particlehole) fluctuations because of the difference in the Landau parameters in the spinsymmetric and spin-antisymmetric channels. The phrase spin-charge separation
should therfore be reserved for situations, as in one-dimension, where the singleparticle excitations separate into objects carrying charge alone and which carry
spin alone.

56

4.1 The One Dimensional Electron Gas

The Hamiltonian describing the low energy dynamics reads
H = H0 + Hf orward + Hbackward + HU mklapp .

(78)

In (78) H0 is the free electron Hamiltonian

H0 =

k ck ck .

(79)

In one dimension the particles move in two branches, either to the left or the
right. Dene the charge density operators r and the spin density operators
Sr for the two branches, r = ,

r = =1 r,
r, ,

z
Srz = , r,
,
r, ,
2

(80)

where z is a Pauli-matrix. The Fourier components of the particle density

operators read
r, (q) =

cr,,k+q cr,,k = r, (q) .

(81)

These bilinears may be explicitly shown to obey Bose commutation relastions.

If we linearize k about the two Fermi-points, the energy of a particle-hole pair
created by r, (q),
r,k+q r,k = rvF q ,

(82)

is independent of k in one dimension (provided the band cuto is taken to innity). States created by r, (q) are linear combinations of individual electronhole excitations all of which have the same energy and are therefore eigenstates
of H0 . It follows that for q > 0, r=+, (q) [r=, (q)] is a raising [lowering] operator. Consequently H0 may be expressed in terms of the density operators:
H0 =

2vF X X
r, (rq)r, (rq) .
L r= q>0

(83)

Upon separating the densities on a given branch into charge and spin pieces,
1
r (x) = [r (x) + Srz (x)] ,
2
57

(84)

the free Hamiltonian may be expressed as a sum in the spin and charge degrees
of freedom:
H0 =

X
r

H0 [r ] +

X
r

H0 [Srz ].

(85)

It follows that in the noninteracting problem spin and charge have identical dynamics and propagate in unison. Once interactions are introduced, the
electron will fractionalize and spin and charge dynamics will, in general,
dier.
We now discuss the various interaction terms in the Hamiltonian. The piece
describing the forward scattering events (kF , ; kF , ) (kF , ; kF , )
and (kF , ; kF , ) (kF , ; kF , ) reads
Hf orward = H2 + H4 ,

(86)

with
1 X X
g +, (q), (q) ,
L q 2
1 X X
g [+, (q)+, (q) + , (q), (q)] .
H4 =
2L q 4

H2 =

(87)
(88)

The operators r, involve a creation and annihilation operator on the same

branch. We also dene operators r which involve operators on opposite
branches,
r =

X
k

cr,,k cr,,k+q .

(89)

In terms of these the Hamiltonian describing backscattering interactions (the

scattering event (+kF , ; kF , ) (kF , ; kF , ) and its reverse) becomes
Hbackwards = H1 = g1

XX
q

g1 +
(q) (q) .

(90)

and the Umklapp term reads

H3 =

1 X X +

g [ (q)+
(q) + (q) (q)] .
2L q 3

(91)

In all these expressions, the coupling constants may be spin dependent:

gi = gi|| + gi .
58

(92)

H1

H3

H2
kF

H4

kF

Fig. 26. Pictorial representation of the low-energy interaction terms in the

one-dimensional problem. After [169]. The + and - points are a shorthand
for the two Fermi points k = kF and (kF ) respectively.

As the terms H1|| and H2|| describe the same process we may set g1|| = 0 with
no loss of generality. Umklapp processes are important only when 4kF is a
reciprocal lattice vector so that all scattering particles may be near the Fermi
points. If the one dimensional electronic system is suciently incommensurate
then these processes may be neglected.
~ = 0 reads
The condition for spin rotation invariance [H, S]
g2 g1 = g2|| g1|| .

(93)

A guide to the behavior of the Hamiltonian (78) is obtained from the perturbative Renormalization Group ow equations. In one dimension, there are no
truly ordered phases, but at T = 0 there is algebraic long range order. One
may thus determine a phase diagram according to which susceptibilities diverge as T 0: the one associated with singlet superconductivity (SS), triplet
superconductivity (T S), charge density wave (CDW ) state at 2kF , and spin
density wave (SDW ) state at 2kF . The expressions for these susceptibilities
are given in Eq. (111) below, and the resulting phase diagram is shown in
Fig. 27.
4.2 The Tomonaga-Luttinger Model
With forward scattering alone in (78) and after linearizing the kinetic energy
we obtain the Tomonaga-Luttinger (T-L)model. In terms of fermion eld op
erators r, (x) and r,
(x), and density and spin operators r (x) and Srz (x) in
real space, the T-L model is

HT L =
+

r=

1X

dx vF
rr,
ix r, +
g2,c r (x)r (x)
2 r=
r,=
X

g4,c r (x)r (x) + 2

r=

z
g2,s Srz (x)Sr
(x)

59

g4,s Srz (x)Srz (x)

(94)

Fig. 27. Phase diagram for one-dimensional interacting fermions in the (Kc , g1 )
plane with g1|| = 0 in Eqn. (92) and Kc given by Eq.102 . SDW and (CDW )
in the upper left quadrant indicates that both the spin density wave susceptibility
and the charge density wave susceptibility diverge as T 0, but that the spin
density wave susceptibility diverges a factor ln2 T faster than the charge density
wave susceptibility see Eq. (111). Other sectors are labeled accordingly. From
[218].

where
gic =

gi|| + gi
,
2

gis =

gi|| gi
.
2

(95)

Note that the g2,s term is the only term which break SU(2) spin symmetry.
The T-L model is exactly solvable. After all, as previously noted, the (Diraclike) kinetic energy Hamiltonian H0 is also quadratic in the density operators.
So the Hamiltonian is readily diagonalized by a Bogoliubov transformation
whereupon the Hamiltonian becomes a sum of two independent (harmonic)
parts describing noninteracting charge and spin density waves: the charge and
spin density waves are the collective eigenmodes of the system.
The simplest way to describe the TL model and to explicitly track down these
collective modes is via the bosonization of the electronic degrees of freedom.
The reader should be warned that many dierent conventions abound in the
literature. The bosonic representation of the fermionic elds proceeds by writ60

ing [109,180,210]
exp[ir(kF x + r (x))]

Fr ,
a0
2a

r, (x) = lim

(96)

where a is a short distance regulator. r (x) satises

[r (x), r , (x )] = ir,r , sign(x x ) .

(97)

The Klein factors Fr are chosen such that the proper fermionic anticommutation relations are reproduced. The exponential envelope exp[ir (x)] represents the slow bosonic collective degrees of freedom which dress the rapidly
oscillating part Fr exp[ikF x] describing the energetic particle excitations near
the Fermi points.
may be written in terms of the bosonic elds c,s and their conjugate momenta x c,s
r, =

/2[(c rc ) + (s rs )] .

(98)

In terms of the new variables, the charge and spin densities read
(x) =

r (x) =

2
x c ,

S (x) =

X
r

Srz (x)

1
x s . (99)
2

In the (c,s , c,s) representation the Tomonaga-Luttinger Hamiltonian becomes

a sum of two decoupled oscillators describing the gapless charge and spin
density wave eigenmodes
H

T L

v
(x )2
dx
K (x )2 +
HsT L + HcT L . (100)
2
K

=c,s
X

"

The velocities of the collective charge and spin modes are easily read of by
analogy to a harmonic string:
vc,s =

g2c,s 2
g4c,s 2
(vF +
) (
) .

(101)

Likewise, the moduli determining the power-law decay of the correlations are
Kc,s =

v
u
u vF
t

+ g4c,s g2c,s
.
vF + g4c,s + g2c,s
61

(102)

In section 4.7 we shall show how the above expressions for the spin and charge
density wave velocities follow simply from the conservation of left and right
moving particles in the T-L model.
As previously noted, the charge and spin velocities are degenerate in the noninteracting model. When interactions are introduced, the charge and spin velocities (vc and vs ) as well as the energy to create spin and charge excitations
((vs /Ks and vc /Kc respectively) become dierent. The charge constant Kc is
less than 1 for repulsive interactions, which elevates the energy of the charge
excitations, while Kc is greater than 1 for attractive interactions.
4.3 One-particle Spectral functions
The zero temperature spectral functions of the T-L model are
A(k, ) ( vc (k kF ))2c 1/2 | vc (k kF )|c 1/2 (vc > vs )
A(k, ) ( vs (k kF ))c 1/2 | vs (k kF )|2c 1/2 (vc < vs ). (103)
These spectral functions are sketched in Fig. 28 for the case g2 = 0 and in
Fig. 29 for the general case. Notice that the quasiparticle pole in A(k, ) in a
Landau Fermi-liquid is smeared out to produce a branch cut extending from
the spin mode excitation energy to the charge mode excitation energy. These
branch cuts split into two in an applied magnetic eld, see Fig. 30. These
results are exact for small and small |k kF |. Another manifestation of the
SFL behavior is the behavior of the momentum distribution function
nk nkF const sign(k kF )|k kF |2c ,

(104)

where
c,s =


1
1
Kc,s + Kc,s
2 .
8

(105)

In contrast to a Fermi liquid, the expression for nk does not exhibit a step-like
discontinuity at the Fermi points. Note that the exponent 2c is non-universal
(as usual, an outcome of a line of critical points).
The single particle density of states
N() ||2c ,
vanishes at the Fermi surface.
62

(106)

Fig. 28. The zero temperature spectral function A(k, ) = Im{G<

r=+1 (k, )} as a
function of for the case (g2 = 0, g4 6= 0) the one-branch Luttinger liquid
in which the spin and charge velocities differ but for which the the correlation
exponents keep their canonical Kc = 1 according to (102). In the figure vc > vs and
k > 0 are assumed. Note the inverse square root singularities. This is a consequence
of Kc = 1 which makes c = 0. After Voit [262].

Fig. 29. The generic (g2 6= 0, g4 6= 0) zero temperature spectral function. Note the
broader range of non-trivial singularities near vs k and vc k. Here both the effect of
spin-charge velocity difference and the emergence of non-trivial exponents is visible.
After Voit [262]

4.4 Thermodynamics
The contributions of the independent charge and spin modes appears independently in most physical quantities.
The specic heat coecient is found to be
/0 =

vF
2

63

1
1
.
+
vc vs


(107)

Fig. 30. The energy distribution curve (the spectrum A(k, ) at fixed k) as a function
of in the presence of a magnetic field. The dashed line is the zero-field result of Fig.
28. The magnitude of the Zeeman splitting is enhanced with respect to (vc vs )k
for clarity. From Rabello and Si [204].

where = 0 for the non-interacting system.

The spin susceptibility and the compressibility are readily computed
0 = vF /vs ,

/0 = vF Kc /vc

(108)

where 0 and 0 are the susceptibility and compressibility of the noninteracting

gas. The Wilson ratio, already encountered in our discussion of the Kondo
problem in section 3.2,
RW =

2vc
/0
=
,
/0
vc + vs

(109)

deviates from its Fermi Liquid value of unity by an amount dependent on the
relative separation between the spin and charge velocities.

4.5 Correlation Functions

Since the Hamiltonian is separable in charge and spin and as is a product
of independent charge and spin degree of freedom all real space correlation
functions are products of independent charge and spin factors. We will only
focus on the most important correlation functions in the illustrative examples
below, and refer for a summary of the various exact expressions to [188].
The most important feature of the large distance behavior of the charge and
spin correlators is their algebraic decay at zero temperature:
64

cos(2kF (x x )) 3/2
Kc
ln
|x x |
+
B
1,c
((x x ))2
|x x |1+Kc
cos(4kF (x x ))
+ ...
(110)
B2,c
|x x |4Kc
cos(2kF (x x )) 1/2
1
~
~ )i
ln |x x | + ...
+
B
hS(x)
S(x
1,s
((x x ))2
|x x |1+Kc
h(x)(x )i

at asymptotically long distances and Ks = 1. For not too repulsive interactions, so that Kc < 1, the 2kF uctuations are dominant. We have previously
seen that such a CDW/SDW instability may arise due to the special 2kF
nesting wavevector in one dimension. The 4kF modulations are due to Umklapp scattering. The amplitudes {Bi,c } and {Bi,s } are non-universal while the
exponents are determined by the stiness of the free charge and spin elds.
While the above expressions are for Ks = 1, in the general case Ks 6= 1 the
spin correlator decays asymptotically with the exponent (Ks + Kc ).
At nonzero temperatures, it is found that the Fourier transforms of these
correlation functions scale as
CDW T Kc 1 | ln T |3/2 ,
SS T Kc 1 | ln T |3/2 ,

SDW T Kc 1 | ln T |1/2 ,
T S T Kc 1 | ln T |1/2 .

(111)

An example of the spectral density as a function at nite temperatures is

shown in Fig. 31.
The results above lead in principle to clear experimental signatures. X-rays,
which couple to the charge density waves, should peak at low temperatures
with intensities given by
I2kF T Kc ,

I4kF T 2Kc 1 .

(112)

The NMR probe couples to the spin degrees of freedom and the theoretically
computed nuclear relaxation time scales as
T1 T Kc .

(113)

4.6 The Luther-Emery Model

The Luther Emery model extends the Tomonaga-Luttinger Hamiltonian by
including the backward scattering interactions parametrized by H1 , which
scatter from (+kF , ; kF , ) to (kF , ; kF , ) and vice versa. The Umklapp
65

Fig. 31. Left panel: Momentum distribution curves at = 0 (i.e., the spectrum at
fixed = 0 as a function of k) for a spin rotationally invariant Tomonaga-Luttinger
liquid, plotted as a function of vs k/T . Right panels: Energy distribution curves at
k = 0 (the spectrum at fixed k = 0) as a function of /T . In both panels, vc /vs = 3
and c = 0 in (a), c = 0.25 in (b), and c = 0.5 in (c). From Orgad [188].

processes, important (at T = 0) only when 4kF is a reciprocal lattice, continue

to be discarded.
The backward scattering term
H1 =

dx g1

r=1

r,=+1
r,=1
r,=1 r,=1

(114)

written in terms of the bosonic variables introduces a nontrivial sine-Gordon

like interaction:
Hs =

vs
(x s )2
2g1
dx
Ks (x s )2 +
+
cos(
8s )
2
Ks
(2a)2
"

(115)

with rescaled values of the spin and charge velocities and stiness constants.
When g1 > 0 (repulsive interactions), g1 is renormalized to zero in the long
wavelength limit. Since along the RG ow trajectories Ks 1 g1 /(vs ), this
means that Ks renormalizes to 1. The physics corresponding to this case is in
the Tomonaga-Luttinger model that we just discussed.
When the backscattering interactions are attractive, g1 < 0, spin excitations
66

are no longer gapless, and a spin gap of magnitude

vs
g1
s
a 2 2 vs


1/(22Ks )

(116)

is dynamically generated. The attractive backscattering leads to the formation

of bound particle-hole pairs which form a CDW. The spin correlation length
is then nite,
s =

vs
.
s

(117)

Gaps in the charge spectrum develop in the presence of Umklapp scattering.

In the spin gapped phase the Hamiltonian can be conveniently expressed in
terms of new refermionized spin elds r (x).
q

r = Fr exp[i /2(s 2rs )] .

(118)

Luther and Emery observed that at the point Ks = 1/2 the Hamiltonian in
terms of these new spin elds becomes that of noninteracting free fermions
having a mass gap s = g1 /(2a).
Hs =

dx

[ivs rr x r + s r r ] ,

(119)

r=1

leading to the spin excitation spectrum

Es =

2s + vs2 (k kF )2 .

(120)

4.7 Spin charge separation

As in many other physical problems, the availability of an exact solution to
the one-dimensional electron gas problem is intimately linked to the existence
of additional conservation laws or symmetries. One may attack the Luttinger
Liquid problem by looking for its symmetries.
The U(1)L U(1)R symmetry in the absence of Umklapp scattering may be
exhibited by considering the eect of the separate left and right rotations by
angles L,R on the fermion variables:
L (x, t) eiL L (x, t) ,

R (x, t) eiR R (x, t) .

67

(121)

All of the currents are trivially invariant under this transformation as the
elds transform with opposite phases. Physically this corresponds to the
conservation of the number and net spin of left and right moving particles.
As discussed by Metzner and Di Castro [167], these separate conservation laws
for the left and right moving charge and spin currents lead to Ward identities
which enable the computation of the single particle correlation functions.
In the absence of Umklapp scattering, spin and charge are conserved about
each individual Fermi point. The net total charge density + + and
charge density asymmetry + in the Tomonaga-Luttinger Hamiltonian satisfy the continuity equations
= [H, ] = qj ,

= [H, ] = qj ,

(122)

j = uc [+ + ] ,

(123)

where
j(q) = uc [+ ] ,
and where the velocities are given by
uc = vF +

g4c g2c
,

uc = vF +

g4c + g2c
.

(124)

These results follow straightforwardly from the form of HT L in combination

with the fact that the only nonzero commutator is
[r, (q), r , (q )] = qq rr

qL
2

(125)

Let us illustrate simply how many of the results derived via bosonization
may also be directly computed by employing these conservation laws. The
existence of gapless charge modes is a direct consequence of the right-left
charge conservation laws. The two rst-order continuity equations given above
lead to
[2 + uc uc q 2 ] = 0 ,

(126)

from which we can read o a linear charge dispersion mode

= vc |q|

(127)

with velocity vc = uc uc , in agreement with the earlier result (101). Thus,

collective charge excitations propagate with a velocity vc . A similar relation
68

may be found for the spin velocity vs which in general is dierent from vc .
This spin-charge separation also becomes clear from the explicit form of the
expectation values of the charge and spin densities:
h0|r (x0 )r (x, t)r (x0 )|0i = (x x0 rvc t) ,
h0|r (x0 )Srz (x, t)r (x0 )|0i = (x x0 rvs t) ,

(128)

where |0i denotes the ground state.

The separate RightLeft conservation laws cease to hold if (back-scattering)
impurities are present. Accordingly, as shown by Giamarchi and Schulz, [104]
spin-charge separation then no longer holds.

4.8 Spin-charge Separation in more than one-dimension?

Spin-Charge separation in one dimension requires extra conservation laws.

Can something analogous happen in more than one-dimension? No extra conservation laws are discernible in the generic Hamiltonians in two-dimension,
although such Hamiltonians can doubtless be constructed. Are there conditions in which generic Hamiltonians become dynamically equivalent to such
special Hamiltonians (because the unwelcome operators are irrelevant). No
denite answers to these questions are known. In section (5.2)and later in this
section we shall briey review some interesting attempts towards spin-charge
separation in higher dimensions. First we present qualitative arguments pointing out the diculty in this quest.
There is a simple caricature given by Schulz [218] for qualitatively visualizing
charge-spin separation for a special one-dimensional case: the U Hubbard model. This model is characterized (at half-lling) by algebraic decay of
Spin-Density correlations, which at short distances appear as almost antiferromagnetic alignments of spins. Let us track the motion of a hole introduced
into an antiferromagnetically ordered chain. The hole is subject to only the
lattice kinetic term which enables it to move by swapping with a nearby spin.
An initial conguration will be
... O ...

(129)

After one move the conguration is

... O ...
69

(130)

After two additional moves to the left the conguration reads

... O ...

(131)

Thus the initial hole surrounded by two spins of the same polarization has
broken into a charge excitation (holon or chargon a hole surrounded
by antiferromagnetically aligned spins) and a spin excitation (spinon) composed of two consecutive parallel spins in an antiferromagnetic environment.
The statistics of the localized spinons and holons in this model must be such
that their product is fermionic.
The feasibility of well dened spin and charge excitations hinges on the commuting nature of the right and left kinetic (hopping) operators TRight , TLef t
which are the inverse each other. Any general term of the form
Lef t

(TLef t )n1

Right

(TRight )n1

Lef t

(TLef t )n2

Right

(TRight )n2

= (TLef t TRight )

NR

...

NL NR
TLef
t

NL NR
= I TLef
t

(132)

. We have just shown that terms of the form TLnL lead to

where NR,L = i nR,L
i
a cartoon of the sort depicted above which gives rise to spin-charge separation
and therefore our result holds for the general perturbative term. The proof
of spin-charge separation for the one dimensional electron gas rests on the
existence of separate conservation laws for the left and right moving fronts, as
a result of the fact that the operators TRight and TLef t commute.
P

Such a simple proof cannot be extended to higher dimensions. In higher

dimensions this suggestive illustration for spin-charge separation is made impossible by the noncommuting (frustrating) nature of the permutation operators TU p , TDown , TRight , TLef t , ... Moreover, even if the exchange operators
nLef t nU p
commuted we would be left with terms of the form TLef
t TU p which when
acting on the single hole state will no longer give rise to states that may be
seen as a direct product of localized holon and spinon like entities.
Let us simply illustrate this by applying a sequence of various exchanges on
the planar state |i:
-

70

(133)

where + and denote up and down spins, respectively. Applying

2
2

TDown TRight
TU p TLef
t we arrive at | i
-

(134)

2
2
a state which obviously diers from TDown Tup TRight
TLef
t |i = |i. Unlike the
one dimensional case, damage is not kept under check. Note the extended
domain wall neighboring the hole, enclosing a 2 2 region of spins of the
incorrect registry. Note also that the hole is now surrounded by a pair of antiferromagnetically aligned spins along one axis and ferromagnetically aligned
spins along the other. A path closing on itself does not lead to the fusion of the
a holon and spinon like entities back into a simple hole. As the hole continues to further explore both dimensions damage is continuously compounded.
2
2

TRight TDown TRight TU3 p TLef

The state TDown
t |i = |i contains a string of eight
spins of incorrect orientation surrounded by a domain wall whose perimeter
is 16 lattice units long:

+ +

(135)

As seen, the moving electron leaves a string of bad magnetic bonds in its
wake. The energy penalty of such a string is linear in its extent. It is therefore
expected that this (magnetic string) potential leads, in more than one dimension, to a conning force amongst the spin and charge degrees of freedom. As
this caricature for the single hole makes clear, the notion of localized spinons
and holons is unlikely to hold water for the U Hubbard model in more
than one dimension. The well-dened SFL solutions for special models with
nested Fermi-surface in two-dimensions should however be noted [94].
A certain form of spin-charge separation in two dimensions may be sought in
the very special hole aggregates (or stripes) that have been detected in some of
the cuprates [242] and the nickelates [58]. Here, holes arrange themselves along
71

lines which concurrently act as antiferromagnetic domain walls (i.e. behave like
holons) in the background spin texture. Charge and spin literally separate and
occupy dierent regions of space. In eect the two-dimensional material breaks
up into one-dimensional lines with weak inter-connections 24 . Related behavior
is also found in numerical work [163] in the so called, t -t-J model 25 . An
important question for such models is the extent to which the interconnections
between stripes are irrelevant i.e. the coupled-chains problem, which we
briey allude to in section 4.10.

4.9 Recoil and the Orthogonality Catastrophe in 1d and higher

Here we show how the SFL behavior in one-dimension is intimately tied to
the issue of orthogonality we discussed in sections 2.2 and 3.4. This line of
thinking is emphasized by Anderson [20,24] who has also argued that this
line of reasoning gives SFL behavior in two dimensions for arbitrary small
interactions.
We consider the eect of interactions through the explicit computation of our
old friend from section 2.2, the quasiparticle weight
Zk = hkN +1 |ck | N i.

(136)

As we have seen, this indeed vanishes in all canonical one-dimensional models.

Consider the model [49] of a Hamiltonian describing N fermions interacting
with an injected particle via a delta function potential
N
N
X
1 X
2
1 2
H =
(xi x0 ).
+U

2m i=1 x2i
2m x20
i=1
24

(137)

This observation has led to a line of thought which is of some interest in the
context of the issues discussed here. If one focusses on the quantum mechanics of a
single line of holes by formulating it as a quantum mechanical lattice string model
[85], the string traces out a two-dimensional world sheet in space-time. Quantum
mechanical particles in one dimension, on the other hand, trace out world lines in
space-time. It is claimed that one can recover most of the power law correlation
functions of one-dimensional interacting fermions from the classical statistical mechanics of fluctuating lines, and along these lines approach stripe formation as some
form of spin-charge separation in two dimensions [285].
25 In this paper it was further observed that the kinetic motion of single holes may
scramble the background spin environment in such a way that, on average, the
holes may become surrounded by antiferromagnetically ordered spins on all sides
(i.e. both along the horizontal and along vertical axis) this is claimed to be a
higher dimensional generalization of the holons encountered thus far.

72

The calculation for the small s-wave phase shifts for all single particle states
{i (xi )} is relatively straightforward. The quasiparticle weight Z reduces to
an overlap integral between two (N + 1)-particle Slater determinants, and one
nds
2

Z N 2(F /)

(138)

F = tan1 [UkF /2].

(139)

with

In the thermodynamic limit Z = 0 and no quasiparticles exist. As we see,

the scattering phase shifts must conspire to give rise to anomalous behavior
(exponents) for the electronic correlation function in such a way that they
lead to a vanishing density of states at the Fermi level. We have already
given explicit expressions for the anomalous exponent(s) under the presence
of general scattering terms.
As indicated in sections 2 and 3, an identically vanishing overlap integral
between two (N+1) particle states could be a natural outcome of the emergence of additional Quantum numbers labeling orthogonal states. These states
could correspond to dierent topological excitation sectors (e.g. solitons). Each
quantum number corresponds to some conserved quantity in the system. In the
one-dimensional electron gas this may be derived as we saw as a consequence
of separate conservation law for left and right movers.
An illustrative example of how singular Fermi liquid behavior due to orthogonality of the wavefunction is robust in one dimension but easily destroyed in
higher dimensions, is provided by the X-ray edge singularity problem, already
discussed in section 3.5. As sketched in Fig. 19, we consider the transition of
an electron from a deep core level to the conduction band through absorption
of a photon. This problem is essentially the same as that of optical absorption
in degenerate semiconductors, and from this point of view it is natural to analyze, following Nozi`eres [186], the eect of dispersion in the hole band, the
analogue of the deep level state. For optical absorption in a semiconductor, the
transition conserves momentum; hence in the absence of nal state interactions, the threshold absorption is associated with the transition indicated with
the arrowed line in Fig. 19, and absorption starts discontinuously above the
threshold energy D proveded the hole mass is innite. For nite hole mass
the threshold gets rounded on the scale of the dispersion of the hole band.
But in one dimension, the edge singularity does survive because low-energy
electron-hole excitations in one dimension have momenta only near 0 and near
2kF ; see Fig. 10, electron-hole pairs can not carry away arbitrary momenta.
This is seen in the following calculation [186].
73

Assume a simple featureless nal state potential V , and consider rst the case
without recoil. The relevant quantity to calculate is the transient propagator
for the scatterer,
G(t) = h0|deiHt d |0i ,

(140)

as the spectrum is the Fourier transform of G(t). In (140), the potential V is

turned on at time 0 and turned o at time t. In a linked cluster expansion, we
may write G(t) = eC(t) , where C(t) is the contribution of a single closed loop.
In lowest order perturbation theory, C(t) becomes
C(t) =

Zt
0

Zt
0

d V 2 g(0, )g( ) ,

(141)

where g(0, ) is the free conduction electron propagator at the origin. For
large times, one has g(0, ) iN(0)/ , and when this is used in (141) one
immediately nd that for large times
C(t) = V 2 N(0)2 ln t ,

G(t) 1/tn ,

(142)

where
n = V 2 N(0)2 = 2 / 2 + 1

(143)

is the phase shift exponent due to the orthogonality eect, compare Eq. (56).
A power law decay of G(t) 1/tn at long times corresponds to power law
2
2
dependence ( D )n1 = ( D ) / just above the absorption edge.
If we now take into account the recoil eect; the dispersion of the lower band
implies that the hole in this band can hop from site to site. The propagator
G(t) is then obtained as a sum over all trajectories R( ) of the scattering hole
which begin and end at R = 0. For a given history, we can extend the above
analysis to lowest order by replacing the propagator g(0, ) by g(, ), where
( ) = R( ) R( ). For positive time dierence, we can then write
g(, ) =

eik ik .

(144)

k>kF

For small hopping rates and large times, the integration over the modulus is
dominated by the energy term, and this yields a term proportional to 1/
as in the recoilless case. The trajectory of the hole enters through the average
74

exp(ik )

FS

over the Fermi sphere. A simple calculation yields

exp(ik )

FS

cos(kF )

J0 (kF )

sin(kF )
kF

d=1
d=2

(145)

d=3

In order to calculate the large time behavior of the Greens function, we nally
have to average the square of this result over the distribution function of the
trajectories for large times. Using the large- behavior of the expressions
found above, one then easily nds that for large times

g 2 (, )

*

exp(ik )

FS

2 +

1 2
N (0)/ 2
2

d=1

ln typ ( )/(typ ( ) 2 ) d = 2 ,(146)

1/(2typ ( ) 2 )

d=3

where typ is the typical distance the hole trajectory moves away from the
origin. In one dimension, we see that g 2 still falls of as 1/ 2 and hence in
analogy to (142) that G(t) has power law long time behavior: in the presence
of recoil, an edge singularity persisits but the exponent n is now only half that
in the absence of dispersion of the lower state, due to the averaging over .
1

Since typ ( ) grows diusively as 2 for large , the integrand in the expression
(141) for C(t) converges faster than 1/t2 , and hence C(t) converges to a nite
limit for large times. The singular X-ray edge eect is washed out in two and
three dimensions due to the recoil.
If the above argument is extended to arbitrary dimension by analytically continuing the angular average over the Fermi surface to continuous dimensions,
one nds that the orthogonality and concomitant singular behavior is destroyed for any dimension d > 1. Nevertheless, the subdominant behavior of
the integrals will contain noninteger powers of time, and this gives rise to subdominant nonanalytic terms in the spectrum for noninteger d. This behavior
is completely in agreement with an analysis of the dimensional crossover from
Luttinger liquid behavior to Fermi liquid behavior as a function of dimension
[50].

75

4.10 Coupled One-dimensional Chains

The two-coupled chain problem has been thoroughly considered [88,93,217]

[32,181] following earlier one-loop calculations [249] on a related model. The
two-chain or ladder is especially interesting both theoretically and experimentally. In general interchain coupling is a relevant parameter, changing the
behavior qualitatively. In the model of coupled Luttinger chains, the weight
of the massless bosons characteristic of one dimension goes down with the
number of chains.

4.11 Experimental observations of one-dimensional Luttinger liquid behavior

There has, of course, been a long-standing interest to observe the fascinating

one-dimensional Luttinger liquid type SFL behavior experimentally, but the
possibility of clear signatures has arisen only in the last few years. The clearest
way to probe for Luttinger liquid behavior is to measure the tunneling into
the one-dimensional system: Associated with the power law behavior (106) in
one dimension, one has a power law behavior for the single electron tunneling
amplitude into the wire. For xed voltage, this leads to a dierential conductance dI/dV V , with the exponent determined by the charge stiness
Kc , the geometry, and the band structure. Hence, from the measurement of
the tunneling as a function of temperature or voltage, and thus Kc can be
extracted. Recent experiments on resonant tunneling [31] of small islands embedded in one-dimensional quantum wires in semi-conductors, grown with a
so-called cleaved edge overgrowth method, do indeed yield a power law temperature behavior of the conductance which is consistent with Luttinger liquid
behavior, but the value of the exponent is substantially dierent from the one
expected theoretically.
It has recently also been realized that nature has been kind enough to give
us an almost ideal one-dimensional wire to study one-dimensional electron
physics: the wave functions of carbon nanotubes turn out to be coherent over
very large distances [73]. Though the circumference of the nanotubes is rather
large, due to the band structure of the graphite-like structure the conduction
in nanotubes can be described in terms of two gapless one-dimensional bands.
Moreover, it was realized by Kane et al. [133] that due to the special geometry
the backscattering in nanotubes is strongly suppressed, so that they are very
good realizations of the Tomonaga-Luttinger model of section 4.2, with an
interaction constant Kc which is determined by the Coulomb energy on a
cylinder. Their calculation based on this idea gives a value Kc 0.2.
Fig. 32 shows recent nanotube data [197] which beautifully conrm the pre76

dictions by Kane et al. [133]: the dierential conductance dI/dV is found to

vary as V as a function of the bias voltage at low but xed temperatures, or
as T as a function of temperature at xed bias. For tunneling into the bulk
of a carbon nanotube, the relevant density of states
Nbulk () bulk with bulk = c

(147)

The fact that the exponent here is only half the value attained in the simple
Luttinger Liquid see Eq. (106) is due to the fact that there are two Luttinger Liquid-like bands present in the carbon nanotubes 26 . Only one linear
combination of the two associated charge modes attains a nontrivial stiness
Kc 6= 1 [133].
By contrast, at the tips of the nanotubes, surplus electronic charge can propagate in only one direction and, as a consequence, the tunneling is more restricted,
Ntip () tip

with tip = (Kc 1)/4 .

(148)

26

The electrostatic charging energy depends only on the symmetrized band

mode,
which in bosonic variables can be written as c,+ = (c,band=1 + c,band=2 )/ 2. The
essential reason that exponents
can change depending on the number of bands is
that the normalization factor 1/ 2 in this bosonic variable enters in the exponent
when the electron variables are written in terms of the bosonic modes, as discussed
in section 4.2. A simple way to illustrate the halving of the exponents in the context
of the various results we have discussed is by considering the difference between
a the spinfull Luttinger liquid that we have discussed and the spinless Luttinger
liquid (a system only having charge degrees of freedom): the spinfull model has
a density of states exponent which is half of the spinless one. A calculation proceeds along the following lines: for the spinfull case, the relevant
Greens function

2)
i(
(0,0)+
(0,0))/
2)
i(
(x,t)+
(x,t))/
cR
sR
cR
sR
e
i. Note the factor
is
GR=+1 (x, t) = he
variables.
1/ 2 in the exponent, coming from the projection onto the proper bosonic

i
(x,t)/
2
i
(0,0)/ 2 i
cR
cR
This expection
value
can
be
written
as
G
(x,
t)
=
he
e
R=+1

heisR (x,t)/ 2 eisR (0,0)/ 2 i, which with the aid of the results of section 4.3 becomes GR=+1 (x, t) = |xv1t|1/2 |x2 v12 t2 |c |xv1 t|1/2 |x2 v12 t2 |s . From this result,
c

one immediately obtains the density of states NR() = dt G(x = 0, t) eit . A simple integration then yields N () = [vc2c vs2s ] dt t1 t2(c +s ) eit 2(c +s ) .
Since Ks renormalizes to 1 for repulsive interactions [see the remark just after (115)],
one usually has s = 0 and so in this case the density of states exponent is simply
2s . This is precisely (106). Now consider what one gets for the spinless Luttinger

liquid. In this case neither the bosonic spin modes nor the projection factor 1/ 2
are present in the above expression for G. This results in a spatial decay with an
exponent 2c instead of c , and hence an exponent 4c in the density of states. In
other words, for s = 0 the density of states exponent in the spinful case is half of
what it is in the spinless case. The same mechanism is at work in the nanotubes.
R

77

Fig. 32. Differential conduction dI/dV measured by Postma et al. [197] for carbon
nanotubes. At low voltages or temperatures, Coulomb blockade effects dominate,
but at higher temperatures or bias voltages, one probes the one-dimensional SFL
behavior. Panel (a) shows the differential conductance as a function of bias voltage
for various temperatures (note that these temperatures are relatively high, reflecting
the fact that the electronic energy scales of the nanotubes is high). The effective
exponent for the large V behavior is 0.48; since these data are for tunneling
between two nanotubes, = 2c , so c 0.24 and Kc 0.27. The predicted value
is Kc 0.2 [133]. The data in panel (b) show the differential conductance as a
function of temperature at fixed bias for two nanotubes which cross, as well as for
a single nanotube with a bend.

By Fermis golden rule, the relevant exponents for (tip-tip) or (bulk-bulk) tunneling are tt = (Kc 1)/2 and bb = 2c respectively. Bulk-bulk tunneling
is achieved by arranging the nanotubes according to the crossing geometry
depicted in the inset of Fig. 32 above. By extracting the value of the charge
stiness Kc from each of the independent measurements of tt , bb for the
two dierent geometries, a single consistent stiness Kc 0.27 was found
[197], in good agreement with theoretical prediction. This is a beautiful realization of Luttinger Liquid physics!
Other, older, canonical realizations of Luttinger liquids include the Quantum Hall edge states. These represent a chiral spinless Luttinger liquid. Here,
low lying energy states can only prevail at the edge of the sample, and, concurrently, disperse linearly about the Fermi energy. Edge states can attain
macroscopic linear (perimeter) extent, and the tunneling experiments between
such states [170,110] have observed several features predicted theoretically
[271,132]. We refer the interested reader to the review articles by Schulz et al.
[218] and Fisher and Glazman [96] for further details.

78

Singular Fermi-liquid behavior due to gauge fields

5.1 SFL behavior due to coupling to the electromagnetic field

Almost thirty years ago Holstein, Pincus and Norton [120] (see also Reizer
[207]) showed that the coupling of electrons to the electromagnetic elds gives
rise to SFL behavior. Since the typical temperatures where the eects become
important are of the order of 1015 K, the eect is not important in practice.
But the theory is of considerable general interest.
If we work in the Coulomb gauge in which A = 0 for the electromagnetic
A eld, then the transverse propagator Dij0 in free space is given by
Dij0 (k, ) = hAi Aj i(k, ) =

ij ki kj
,
c2 k 2 2 i

(149)

where is an innitesimal positive number. The interaction of the electrons

with the electromagnetic eld is described by the coupling term
j A + A2 ,

(150)

where j is the electron current operator and the density operator.

Quite generally in the Coulomb gauge, one nds from perturbation theory,
or phenomenologically from the Maxwell equations, that the electromagnetic
propagator in a metal can be written as


Dij1 = Dij0

1

M ij ki kj


1

(151)

The perturbative diagrammatic expansion of M is indicated in Fig. 33. The

rst term leads to a term proportional to the density while the second term
is the rst correction due to particle-hole excitations; in formulas, these terms
yield

1
4
n+
M(k, ) =
m
m

2 ][fpk/2 fp+k/2 ]
dd p [p2 (p k)
. (152)
(2)d
(pk/2 p+k/2 )

Here n is the electron density, and = 1/137 is the ne structure constant.

For /k 0 the two terms combined yield
" 

3n
4
M(k, )
m
kvF
79

2

+ 2i
kvF

(153)

Fig. 33. (a) The diagrams for M; (b) The diagram for the self-energy from the in
the discussion of the SFL effect arising from the coupling of the electrons to the
electromagnetic gauge fields; (c) Anharmonic interaction of fluctuations such as
(c) are non-singular in the SFL problem of coupling of the electrons in metals to
electromagnetic fields.

At small frequencies, this yields for the propagator D

Dij (k, )

ij ki kj
,

i6n nkv
+ c2 k 2 i
F

(154)

which corresponds to an overdamped mode with dispersion k 3 .

Before discussing how such a dispersion gives SFL behavior in three dimensions, it is instructive to point out that although (154) was obtained perturbatively, Maxwells equations ensure that the eld propagator must generally be
of this form at low frequencies and momenta. Indeed, for a metal we can write
the current j as j = (k, )E; if we combine this with the Maxwell equation
H = j + E/t we easily nd that the general form of the propagator is
Dij (k, ) =

ij ki kj
.
4i(k, ) + c2 k 2

(155)

Here is the diamagnetic permeability. For pure metals, the low-frequency

limit is determined by the anomalous skin eect [5] and (k, 0) k 1 . According to the expression (155), this 1/k behavior then implies that the dispersion
80

at small frequencies generally goes as k 3 for a pure metal. For dirty metals, the fact that (k, 0) approaches a nite limit 0 at small wavenumbers, so
for dirty metals there is according to (155) a crossover to a behavior k 2
at small wavenumbers.
Gauge invariance of the theory requires that the photon cannot acquire a
mass (a nite energy in the limit k 0) in the interaction process with
the electrons, and hence the form of Eq. (154) remains unchanged. Thus the
anharmonic corrections to the photon propagator due to processes such as
shown in Fig. 33(c) do not change the form of Eq. (154). The self-energy
of the electrons due to photon exchange, Fig. 33(b), may now be calculated
with condence given the small coupling constant in lowest order. The leading
contribution in d = 3 is
(kF , ) ( ln + isgn)

(156)

The momentum dependence, on the other hand, is nonsingular as a function

of k kF .
The nonanalytic behavior of the self-energy as a function of frequency implies
that the resistivity of a pure metal in d = 3 is proportional to T 5/3 at low
temperatures 27 .
The simplicity and strength of the above example lies in the fact that the
theory has no uncontrolled approximations, and the gauge-invariance of the
photon eld dictates the low-energy low-momentum behavior of the photon
propagator Dij (k, ). Moreover, vertex corrections are not important because
the Migdal theorem is valid [195] when the frequency of uctuations is very
small compared to their momenta, as in q 3 .
However, the SFL behavior as a result of the coupling to the electromagnetic
eld is not relevant in practice. This can most easily be argued as follows. For
a Fermi gas, the entropy per particle is
2
S
2 mkB
T
=
,
2 2
N
h
kF

(158)

27

This follows from the fact that in the quasi-elastic approximation, the transport
1
is related to the single-particle relaxation rate 1 () due to
relaxation rate tr
scattering through an angle near the Fermi-surface
1
=
tr

d(1 cos()) 1 ().

(157)

For small T , k3 T , and hence the characterestic angle of scattering,

(k/kF ) (T /EF )1/3 is small. Upon expanding
(1 cos ) 2 /2, one finds that
R 3
the effective transport scattering rate goes as d k k2 f (k3 /T ) T 5/3 .

81

while for the entropy for the electrons interacting with the electromagnetic
eld one nds from the above results [120]
2 2 T
S
0

ln
N
3 ckF
T


(159)

with
0 =

cF
.
vF

(160)

Upon comparing these two results, one concludes that the SFL eects start to
become important for temperatures
<

T 0 e

3m ck2
B
2
h 2 kF

(161)

Since the numerical factor in the exponent is typically of order 105 1 for
ordinary metals, the temperature range one nds from this is of order 1015
Kelvin for values of of order unity, according to this estimate. Note however
that for pure ferromagnetic metals can be as large as 104 . Possibly, in some
ferromagnets, the eects can become real.
5.2 Generalized gauge theories
The example of coupling to the electromagnetic eld identies one possible
theoretical route to SFL behavior, but as we have seen the crossover temperatures that one estimates for this scenario are too small for observable physical
properties. The smallness of the estimated crossover temperature is essentially
due to the fact that the coupling to the electromagnetic eld is determined by
the product vF /c, where = 1/137 and typically vF /c = O(102 ). Motivated
by this observation, many researchers have been led to explore the possibility
of getting SFL eects from coupling to dierent, more general gauge bosons
which might be generated dynamically in strongly correlated fermions. For
a recent review with references to the literature, see [150,179,180]. The hope
is that if one could consistently nd such a theory in which the small factor
vF /c arising in the electromagnetic theory is replaced by a term of order
unity, realistic crossover temperatures might arise. Much of the motivation
in this direction comes from Andersons proposal [24] of spin-charge separation and resonating valence bonds in the high-temperature superconductivity
problem which we discuss in section 7.
The essence of approaches along these lines is most easily illustrated by considering electrons on a lattice in the case in which strong on-site (Hubbard-type)
82

repulsions forbid two electrons to occupy the same site. Then each site is either occupied by an electron with an up or down spin, or by a hole. If we
introduce ctitious fermionic creation and annihilation operators f and f for
the electrons and ctitious bosonic hole creation and annihilation operators b
and b for the holes, we can express the constraint that there can only be one
electron or one hole on each lattice site by
2
X

fi
fi + bi bi = 1

for each i .

(162)

=1

With this convention, the real electron eld i can be written as a product
of these fermion and boson operators
i = fi bi .

(163)

This expresses the fact that given the constraint (162), a real fermion annihilation at a site creates a hole. This way of writing the electron eld may be
motivated by the physics of the one-dimensional Hubbard model: there a local
excitation may indeed be expressed in terms of a charged spinless holon and
an uncharged spinon. In general, in a transformation to boson and fermion
operators as in (163) there is some freedom with which operator we associate
the charge and with which one the spin.
Whenever we split a single electron operator up into two, as in (163), then
there is a gauge invariance, as the product is unchanged by the transformation
fi (t) ei(t) fi (t) ,

bi (t) ei(t) bi (t) .

(164)

We can promote this invariance to a dynamical gauge symmetry by introducing a gauge eld a and writing the Hamiltonian in the continuum limit
as

H=

dr

i + a

2mf

!2

dr b

f + ( f )f f +

i + a
2mb

2

b + ( b )b b .

(165)

Here is a Lagrange multiplier eld which is introduced to implement the

constraint (162). Note that the a eld enters in much the same way in the
Hamiltonian as the electromagnetic eld usually does indeed, a change
in the individual f s and bs by a space dependent phase factor as in (164)
can be reabsorbed into a change of a. Note also the presence of the chemical
83

potentials f and b to enforce that for a deviation of the (average) density n

from one per site, the density of holes is 1 n and of fermions is n.
The next step in the theory is to nd the uctuation propagator for the a eld,
as a function of f and b . For nite f and negative b (bosons uncondensed),
the uctuation propagator is similar to that of the previous section but with
(vF /c) replaced by a term of O(1). Spinon and holon self-energies can now be
calculated and composition laws [126] are derived to relate physical correlation
functions to correlation functions of spinons and holons.
Unfortunately, this very attractive route has turned out to be less viable than
had been hoped. It is not clear whether the diculties are purely technical;
they are certainly formidable. The essential reason is that while photons have
no mass and are not conserved, and hence can not Bose condense, in a gauge
theory obtained by introducing additional bosons, the bosons generally can
and will Bose condense because they do have a chemical potential. Bose condensation leads to a mass term in the propagator for the gauge elds. The
singularities in the fermions due to the gauge elds then disappear. It is the
analogue of the fact that superconductivity leads to the Meissner eect
there the emergence of the superconducting eld breaks gauge invariance and
leads to the expulsion of the magnetic eld from the superconductor. The latter eect can also be thought of as being due to the generation of a mass term
for the gauge elds.
Several variants of these ideas have been proposed with and without attempts
to suppress the unphysical condensation through uctuations [176]. The trouble is that such uctuations tend to bind the spinons and holons and the happy
situation in one dimension where they exist independently being protected
by (extra) conservation laws, see section 4.9 is hard to realize. As usual, it
appears that introduction of new quantum numbers requires new symmetries.
Interesting variants using the idea of spin-charge separation have recently
appeared [220,176].

Quantum Critical Points in fermionic systems

As mentioned in the introduction, quantum critical behavior is associated

with the existence of a T = 0 phase transition; of course, in practice one can
only study experimentally the behavior at nonzero temperatures, but in this
sense the situation is no dierent from ordinary critical phenomena: one never
accesses the critical point itself, but observes the critical scaling of various
experimentally accessible quantities in its neighborhood.
84

In practice, the most common situation in which one observes a quantum critical point is the one sketched in Fig. 1, in which there is a low temperature
ordered state a ferromagnetic state, antiferromagnetic state or charge density wave ordered state, for instance whose transition temperature to the
disordered state or some other ordered state goes to zero upon varying some
parameter. In this case, the quantum critical point is then also the end point
of a T = 0 ordered state. However, sometimes the ordered state really only
exists at T = 0; for example in metal-insulator transitions and in quantum
Hall eect transitions [232,198]. A well-known example of this case in spin
models is in two-dimensional antiferromagnetic quantum Heisenberg models
with quantumness as a parameter g [55], which do not order at any nite
temperature, but which show genuine ordered phases at T = 0 below some
value g < gc .
Although the question concerning the origin of the behavior of high temperature superconductors is not settled yet, there are strong indications, discussed
in the next section, that much of their behavior is governed by the proximity
to a quantum critical point.
One of the rst formulations of what we now refer to as quantum critical behavior was due to Moriya [177,178] and Ramakrishnan [174], who did an RPA
calculation for a model of itinerant fermions with a Stoner-type instability to
a ferromagnetic state. In modern language, their approach amounts to a 1/N
expansion. Various other important contributions were made [37,77]. The now
standard more modern formulation, which we will follow, is due to Hertz [117].
A nice introduction can be found in the article by Sondhi et al. [232], and for
a detailed expose we refer to the book by Sachdev [210]. See also the review
by Continento [66].

6.1 Quantum critical points in ferromagnets, antiferromagnets, and charge

density waves

A clear example of quantum critical behavior, and actually one for which
one can compare with theoretical predictions, is summarized in Figs. 34-37.
The gures show various data from [239] on the magnetic compound MnSi
[191,192,152,161,239]. Fig. 34 shows that for low pressures and temperatures,
this compound exhibits a magnetic phase whose transition temperature Tc
vanishes as the pressure is increased up to pc = 14.8 kbar. This value of the
pressure then identies the quantum critical point. Fig. 35 shows that when
the same data are plotted as Tc4/3 versus pressure, the data fall nicely on a
straight line except close to the critical pressure. This observed scaling of Tc4/3
with ppc away from pc is in accord with the behavior predicted by the theory
discussed below. Actually the transition is weakly rst order near pc ; so very
85

Fig. 34. Magnetic phase diagram as a function of pressure of M nSi [191,192,239].

From [239].

Fig. 35. Power law dependence of the Curie-temperature as a function of pressure

for M nSi. From [239].

detailed verication of the theory is not possible.

Fig. 36 shows data for the temperature dependence of 0 near pc , where 0
is the residual low temperature resistivity. In the presence of a eld of 3 Tesla,
one observes the usual 0 T 2 Fermi-liquid scaling, but at zero eld the
results are consistent with 0 T 5/3 behavior predicted by the theory. But
if we write the low temperature resistivity behavior as
= 0 + AT
86

(166)

Fig. 36. T -dependence of ((T )T =0 ) near the critical pressure pc with and without
an external magnetic field. From [239].

Fig. 37. Evolution of 0 and A under pressure, when the temperature dependence
of the resistivity is fitted to ( = 0 + AT 2 ). From [239].

then both the residual resistivity 0 and the amplitude A are found to show
a sharp peak at pc as a function of pressure see Fig. 37. This behavior
is not understood nor is the fact that the exponent does not appear to
regain the Fermi-liquid value of 2 for signicant values of p > pc (at H = 0)
and in a temperature regime where the theory would put the material in the
quantum-disordered Fermi-liquid regime.

87

6.2 Quantum critical scaling

Before discussing other experimental examples of quantum critical behavior it
is expedient to summarize some of the essential quantum critical scaling ideas.
As is well known, at a nite temperature transition, the critical behavior is
classical and we can use classical statistical mechanics to calculate the correlation functions. This is so because due to critical slowing down the characteristic
time scale diverges with the correlation length,
z .

(167)

Near a critical point the correlation length diverges as

|T Tc | .

(168)

The combination of these two results shows that critical slowing down implies
that near any nite temperature critical point the characteristic frequency
scale c goes to zero as
c |T Tc |z .

(169)

Therefore near any phase transition c Tc , and as a result the phase transition is governed by classical statistical physics: the Matsubara frequencies are
closely spaced relative to the temperature, the thermal occupation of bosonic
modes is large and hence classical, etc.
In classical statistical mechanics, the dynamics is a slave to the statics; usually,
the dynamical behavior is adequately described by time-dependent LandauGinzburg type of equations or Langevin equations which are obtained by
building in the appropriate conservation laws and equilibrium scaling behavior
[112]. At a quantum critical point, the dynamics must be determined a priori
from the quantum-mechanical equations of motion.
The general scaling behavior near a T = 0 quantum critical point can however
be discussed with the formalism of dynamical scaling [112,156], just as near
classical critical points. Consider for example the susceptibility for the case of
MnSi that we considered above. The scaling ansatz for the singular part of
the susceptibility
(k, , p) = hMMi(k, , p)

(170)

implies that near the critical point where the correlation length and time scale
88

diverge, the zero-temperature susceptibility is a universal scaling function

of the scaled momentum and frequency,
(k, , p) = dM (k, t) ,

(171)

where now
|p pc | ,

t = z .

(172)

This is just like the classical scaling with T Tc replaced by p pc . The reason
for writing t instead of is that in quantum statistical calculations, the timewise direction becomes like an additional dimension, so that t plays the role
of a correlation length in this direction. However, the time-direction has both
a long-time cuto given by 1/kB T and a short-time cuto given by the high
energy cuto in the problem exchange energy or Fermi-energy, whichever
is smaller in the ferromagnetic problem. The short-time cuto has its analog
in the spatial scale. The long-time cuto, which determines the crossover from
classical to quantum behavior, plays a crucial role in the properties discussed
below. The crucial point is that when z 6= 1, there is anisotropic scaling
between the space and time-wise direction, and as we shall discuss below, this
implies that as far as the critical behavior is concerned, the eective dimension
of the problem is d + z, not d + 1.
The exponent dM in (171) reects that a correlation function like has some
physical dimension which often is inevitably related to the spatial dimension.
The dependence of critical properties on spatial dimensions must be expressible purely in terms of the divergent correlation length . Often dM is xed by
dimensional considerations (in the language of eld theory, it is then given by
the engineering dimension of the eld), but this may not be true in general.
It must be so, however, if is a correlation function of a conserved quantity 28 .
Let us now address the nite temperature scaling, taking again the case of
MnSi as an example. The various regimes in the T -p diagram discussed below
are indicated in Fig. 38. To distinguish these regimes it is necessary to dene
an additional quantity, the thermal length
LT

.
kB T

(173)

LT corresponds dimensionally to a timescale. It marks the crossover between

phenomena at long time scales which can be treated essentially classically from
28

E.g., if we consider the free energy per unit volume at a classical transition, the
energy scale is set by kB T , and dM = d; likewise, if we consider the surface tension
of an interface, whose physical dimension is energy per unit surface area, dM = d1.

89

Fig. 38. Generic phase diagram and cross-overs for quantum critical points with the
various regimes indicated. is the correlation length at T = 0; LT is the thermal
correlation length.

those on a shorter scale which are inherently quantum mechanical. Whenever

t < LT , the correlation length and time are nite and quantum mechanics
begins to dominate. This is the regime on the right in the gure. Fermi-liquid
behavior is expected in this regime. However, if one approaches the critical
point (T = 0, p = pc ) from above along the vertical line, then LT diverges
but so does t . Moreover, t diverges faster than LT since z is usually larger
> 1. This means that the characteristic uctuation energy and temperature
are similar. So the behavior is quasiclassical throughout each correlated region
down to zero temperature (In a path integral formulation [232,210] one considers the model on a innite strip whose width is nite in the timewise direction
and equal to LT . Hence for t > LT the model is fully correlated across the
strip in this direction). This regime is therefore characterized by anomalous
T dependence in the physical quantities up to some ultra-violet cuto. It is
important to stress that this so-called quantum critical scaling behavior 29
is expected in the observable properties in the whole region above pc . So SFL
can be observed over a whole range of parameter p and temperatures between
the left and right cross-over lines.
If one approaches the line of phase transitions to the ordered phase, which is
marked with a solid line in the gure, one has a region with SFL properties
dominated by classical uctuations close to the transition. Millis [171] has
29

The term is somewhat problematic; it refers to the quasiclassical fluctuation

regime around a quantum critical point.

90

corrected Hertzs results [117] on this point, and has found that the critical
temperature of the phase transition scales as Tc |p pc |z/(d+z2) . Estimates
of the classical critical region are also given. Results along similar lines may
also be found in [65,66].
If we include both the temperature and the parameter p, the scaling ansatz
for the imaginary part of becomes


(k, , p, T ) dM 1 k, z ,

(174)

This can be rewritten in other forms depending on which experiment is being

analyzed. For example, the above form is especially suitable for analysis as a
function of (p pc ). For analyzing data as a function of temperature, we may
instead rewrite

(k, , p, T ) =

d /z
LT M 2

1/z
kLT , LT ,

LT
t

(175)

and for analyzing data as a function of frequency

(k, , p, T ) = T

dM /z

1
,
,
T 1/z T T t

(176)

Moreover, the scaling of the free energy F can be obtained from the argument
that it is of the order of the thermal energy kB T per correlated volume d .
Moreover, since LT acts as a nite cuto for t in the timewise direction, we
then get the scaling
F T d T (t )d/z T 1+d/z .

(177)

By dierentiating twice, this also gives immediately the specic heat behavior
at low temperatures. In writing the above scaling forms, we have assumed that
no dangerously irrelevant variables exist, as these could change /T scaling
to /T scaling 30 .
30

Dangerously irrelevant variables are irrelevant variables which come in as prefactors of scaling behavior of quantities like the Free Energy [95]. Within the Renormalization Group scenario, the hyperscaling relation d = 2 is violated above the
upper critical dimension because of the presence of dangerously irrelevant variables.
Presumably, dangerously irrelevant variables are more important than usually at
QCPs, since the effective fluctuation dimension is above the upper critical dimension for d = 3 and z > 1. Some examples are discussed in [210].

91

In order to get the critical exponents and the cross-over scales, one has to turn
to a microscopic theory. The theory for this particular case of the quantum
critical point in MnSi is essentially a Random Phase Approximation and
proceeds along the following lines: (i) One starts with a model of interacting
fermions; (ii) An ordering eld M(k, ) is introduced; (iii) One assumes the
fermions can be eliminated near the critical point to get a free energy in terms
of M of the form
F=

dd k1 (k, )|M(k, )|2 +

+

d{}

d{k} V M(k1 , 1)M(k2 , 2 )Mk3 , 3 )M(k4 , 4 )

(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 )(k1 + k2 + k3 + k4 ) + (178)

Note that this is essentially an extension of the usual Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson

free energy to the frequency domain. Indeed, from here on one can follow the
usual analysis of critical phenomena, treating the frequency on an equal
footing with the momentum k.
The important result of such an analysis is that the eective dimension as far
as the critical behavior is d + z, not d + 1 as one might naively expect. Since
z 1 in all known examples, the fact that the eective dimension is bigger
than d + 1 reects the fact that the correlation length t in the timewise direction grows as z , i.e. faster than the spatial correlation length 31 . Moreover,
the fact that z 1 implies that the eective dimension of a d = 3 dimensional problem is always larger or equal than four. Since the upper critical
dimension above which mean eld behavior is observed equals four for most
critical phenomena, one thus arrives immediately at the important conclusion
that most quantum critical points in three dimensions should exhibit classical
uctuations with mean eld scaling exponents! It also implies that the critical
behavior can typically be seen over a large parameter or temperature range
the question of the width of the critical region, which normally is determined
by the Ginzburg criterion, does not arise. On the other hand, questions concerning the existence of dangerously irrelevant variables, due for example to
the scaling of the parameters V in Eq. (178), do arise.
In order to judge the validity and generality of these results, it is important
to keep in mind that they are derived assuming that the coecients of the
M 2 , M 4 terms are analytic functions of k, and the pressure p, etc. This is
completely in line with the usual assumption of analyticity of the bare coupling
parameters in a renormalization group approach. This assumption may well
31

This has important consequences for a scaling analysis of numerical data, aimed
at determining the critical behavior. For it implies that the finite size scaling has
to be done anisotropically, with the anisotropy depending on the exponent z which
itself is one of the exponents to be determined from the analysis

92

be violated in fact none of the impurity models discussed earlier can be

treated along these lines: the fermions can not be integrated there, and if one
attempts to apply the above procedure, one nds singular contributions to
the bare coupling parameters. Later on we shall discuss a three-dimensional
experimental example where this assumption appears to be invalid. Secondly,
it is inherently an expansion about the nonmagnetic state, which can not
apply in the ordered phase: In the ordered phase with nonzero magnetization,
M 6= 0, there is a gap for some momenta in the fermionic spectra. This gap
can not be removed perturbatively.
In a ferromagnet, the ground state susceptibility on the disordered side is given
by


1 (k, ) = (p pc ) + k 2 +

i
kvF

(179)

In the rst two terms we recognize the usual mean eld type behavior with a
correlation length that diverges as (p pc )1/2 , hence the critical exponent
= 1/2. The last term, which describes Landau damping of the spin wave
modes, is very special here as it arises from uctuations of magnetization, a
quantity which is conserved, i.e., commutes with the Hamiltonian. Therefore
the characteristic damping rate must approach zero as k 0. Since at the
critical point (179) leads to a damping k 3 , the critical exponent z = 3.
According to the theory described above, the critical behavior at the quantum
critical point (T = 0, p = pc ) is therefore of the mean-eld type for any physical
dimension d > 1, since the eective dimension d + z > 4 for d > 1.
The scattering of electrons o the long wavelength spin waves is dominated
by small angle scattering, and it is easy to calculate the resulting dominant
behavior of the self-energy of the electrons. Near the critical point the behavior
of is very similar to the electromagnetic problem we discussed in section 5.
Analogously, one also nds SFL behavior here: in d = 3, (kF , ) ln +
i|| while in d = 2 one obtains (kF , ) 2/3 + i||2/3 . Furthermore, for the
resistivity one nds in three dimensions T 5/3 this is consistent with the
behavior found in MnSi in the absence of a eld, see Fig. 36. Moreover, as we
mentioned earlier, according to the theory, near the critical point Tc should
vanish as |p pc |z/(d+z2) ; with d = z = 3 this yields Tc |p pc |3/4 . As we
saw in Fig. 35, this is the scaling observed over a large range of pressures,
except very near pc . ZrZn2 [111] is an example in which the Ferromagnetic
transition is shifted to T = 0 under pressure continuously. The properties are
again consistent with the simple theory outlined. There is however trouble on
the horizon [153]. The asymptotic temperature dependence for p > pc is not
proportional to T 2 , as expected. We will return to this point in sections 6.4.
For antiferromagnets or charge density waves the critical exponents are dif93

ferent. In these cases, the order parameter is not conserved, and the inverse
susceptibility in these cases is of the form
i
(k, ) = (p pc ) + (k k0 ) +

(180)

where k0 is the wavenumber of the antiferromagnetic or charge density wave

order. From this expression we immediately read o the mean eld exponents
z = 2 and = 1/2. Since the eective dimension d + z is above the upper
critical dimension for d = 3, the mean eld behavior is robust in three dimensions. In d = 2, on the other hand, the eective dimension d + z = 4 is equal
to the upper critical dimension, and hence one expects logarithmic corrections
to the mean eld behavior. Indeed, in two dimensions one nds for the self F , ) ln + i|| (only)for those k
F from which spanning
energy [119] (k
vectors to other regions of the Fermi-surface separated by k0 can be found; the
resistivity goes as (T ) T 2 ln T in this case. However, if several bands cross
the Fermi-surface, as often happens in heavy fermions, Umklapp-type scattering may enforce the same temperature dependence in the resistivity as in
the single particle self-energy, except at some very low crossover temperature.
The physical reason for this dependence despite the fact that the soft modes
are at large momentums (and therefore vertex corrections do not change the
F
temperature dependence of transport relaxation rates) is that the set of k
usually covers a small portion of the Fermi-surface.
Fig. 39 shows the phase diagram of two compounds that order antiferromagnetically at low temperatures. The rst one, CeIn3 is a three-dimensional
antiferromagnet. A superconducting phase intervenes at very low temperatures (note the dierent scale on which the transition to the superconducting
phase is drawn), covering the region around the quantum critical point at
a pressure of about 26 kbar. At this pressure, the normal state resistivity
is found to vary as (T ) T 1.60.2 which is consistent with the theoretical
prediction that at a quantum critical point dominated by antiferromagnetic
uctuations the resistivity should go as T 1.5 . The right panel in Fig. 39
shows the phase diagram and resistivity data of the three dimensional antiferromagnet CeP d2 Si2 ; the data in this case are best tted by T 1.2 ; this
is consistent with the theoretical prediction T 1.25 which results if one has
a (k k0 )4 dispersion around the AFM vector k0 in one direction and the
usual (k k0 )2 dispersion in the other two. No independent evidence for such
dispersion is however available yet. In both of these cases, part of the region
of superconductivity, in a region bounded by a line emanating from the QCP
and going on to the antiferromagnetic to the normal state line, is expected to
be antiferromagnetic as well.
These two compounds are also of interest because the phase diagram bears a
resemblance to the phase diagram of the high- Tc copper-oxide based super94

Fig. 39. Left panel: Temperature-pressure phase diagram of high-purity single-crystal CeIn3 . A sharp drop in the resistivity consistent with the onset of
superconductivity below Tc is observed in a narrow window near pc the pressure
at which the Nel temperature TN tends to absolute zero. Upper inset: this transition is complete even below pc itself. Lower inset: just above pc , where there is
no Nel transition, a plot of the temperature dependence of d(ln )/d(ln T) is
best able to demonstrate that the normal state resistivity varies as T 1.60.2 below
about 3 K. is the difference between the normal state resistivity and its residual
value (which is calculated by extrapolating the normal-state resistivity to absolute
zero). For clarity, the values of Tc have been scaled by a factor of ten. Right panel:
Temperature-pressure phase diagram of high-purity single-crystal CeP d2 Si2 . Superconductivity appears below Tc in a narrow window where the Nel temperature
TN tends to absolute zero. Inset shows the normal state a-axis resistivity above the
superconducting transition varies as T 1.20.1 over nearly two decades in temperature. The upper critical field Bc2 at the maximum value of Tc varies near Tc at a
rate of approximately 6T /K. For clarity, the values of Tc have been scaled by a
factor of three, and the origin of the inset has been set at 5 K below absolute zero.
Both plots are from Mathur et al. [161].

conductors in which the conduction electron density is the parameter varied

see. Fig. 49. Unlike the heavy fermion compounds where the ordered phase
is antiferromagnetic, the order in copper-oxides near the QCP is not AFM. Its
nature is in fact unknown. In the heavy fermion compounds superconductivity
promoted by antiferromagnetic uctuations is expected to be of the d-wave
variety [175] as it is in the high- Tc copper-oxide compounds.

95

6.3 Experimental Examples of SFL due to Quantum-Criticality: Open Theoretical Problems

We have discussed the observed quantum critical behavior in some system
which is largely consistent with the simple RPA-like theoretical predictions.
There are however quite a few experimentally observed signatures of singularities near QCPs, especially in heavy fermion compounds, which are not
understood theoretically by the simple RPA theory of the previous subsection. In this section we present some prominent examples of these.
The experimental observations fall in two general categories, in both of which
the low-temperature resistivity does not obey the power laws expected of
Fermi-liquids: Compounds in which resistivity decreases from its limit at T =
0 and those in which it increases. In both cases the Cv /T is singular for
T 0. It is reasonable to associate the former with the behavior due to
impurities and the latter with the QCP properties of the pure system. But
as we discussed in section 3.9 the QCP due to impurities requires tuning to
special symmetries unlikely to be realized experimentally. As we will discuss,
the eect of impurities without any special symmetries but coupling to the
order parameter is expected to be quite dierent near the QCP of the pure
system compared to far from it. Under some circumstances, it is expected to
be singular and may dominate the observations.
We start with experiments in the second category. Figs. 40-42 shows several
data sets for the heavy fermion compound CeCu6x Aux for various amounts of
gold. This compound shows a low-temperature paramagnetic phase for x < 0.1
and a low temperature antiferromagnetic phase for x > 0.1. The specic heat
data of Fig. 40 and the resistivity data of Fig. 42 show that while without Au,
i.e. in the paramagnetic regime, the behavior is that of a Heavy Fermi-liquid
metal, the alloy near the quantum critical composition CeCu5.9 Au0.1 exhibits
a specic heat with an anomalous
Cv T ln T .

(181)

At the same composition, the resistivity shows a linear

temperature dependence, and the susceptibility data in Fig. 41 show a T cusp. The anomalous
behavior is replaced by Fermi-liquid properties both by a magnetic eld and
by increasing the substitution of copper by gold. The compound Y bRh2 S2
seems to have similar properties [243]. Related properties have also been
found in U2 P t2 In [86,87] and in UP t3x P dx [74], UBe13 ,CeCu2 Si2 , CeNi2 Ge2
[235]. The SFL properties observed at the Mott-Insulator-Metal Transition in
BaV S3 [97] are also of related interest.
None of the quantum critical properties of the CeCuAu compounds is con96

Fig. 40. The specific heat C/T of CeCu6x Aux versus log T . From L
ohneysen et al.
[266268].

Fig. 41. Susceptibility data for CeCuAu. From L

ohneysen et al. [269].

sistent with any of the models that we have discussed. Information on the
magnetic uctuation spectra for CeCu5.9 Au0.1 is available through neutron
scattering experiments [215,236]. The data shown in Fig. 43 show rod-like
peaks, indicating that the spin uctuations are almost two-dimensional at
this composition. The neutron scattering data can be tted by an expression
for the spin susceptibility of the form
1 (k, ) = C [f (k) + (i + aT ) ]

(182)

with a function f which is consistent with an eectively two-dimensional scat97

Fig. 42. Resistivity data for CeCuAu. From L

ohneysen et al. [269].

Fig. 43. Neutron scattering data for CeCu5.9 Au0.1 , a compound which is close to
a QCP. The figure shows q-scans along three different crystallographic directions,
from top to bottom in the a, b and c directions for h
= 0.1meV . The figures shows
that there is only a weak q-dependence along the rods (q ), while transverse scans
(q|| ) shows well defined peaks with nearly the same line width. From Stockert et al.
[236].

98

tering,
f (k) = b(k )2 + c(kk )4 .

(183)

kk and k are the deviations from the AFM Bragg vector parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis in these tetragonal crystals. Further
a1,

= 0.74 0.1 .

(184)

At present, there is no room for this anomalous exponent within known theoretical frameworks. However, if one accepts this particular form of as giving
an adequate t, the observed specic heat follows: at the critical composition,
we expect the temperature scaling relation
(d1) 1
k

F T

T T (d1)/2 T /4 T 1+(d1/2)/2 ,

(185)

which immediately gives CV d2 F /dT 2 T for = 4/5 with a plausible

logarithmic multiplying factor.
The observed resistivity does not follow directly from the measured ; a further
assumption is needed. The assumption that works is that fermions couple to
the uctuations locally, as in an eective Hamiltonian ci, ci, Si,, . Then
if the measured uctuation spectra are that of some localized spins Si , the
single-particle self-energy is that due to exchange of bosons with propagator
proportional to
X
k

(k, ) ln() + i sgn ().

(186)

This ensures that the single-particle relaxation rate as well as the transport
relaxation rate is proportional to T . A major theoretical problem is why the
non-local or recoil terms in the interaction of itinerant fermions are irrelevant; i.e why is the eective Hamiltonian not

k,q ck+q, ck, (Sq + Sq

) , .

(187)

Why has momentum conservation been legislated away?

The singularity of also raises the question whether the anharmonic processes,
Fig. 33(c), which are benign and allow the elimination of fermions in the RPA
theory, give singular contributions to . Also can fermions really be eliminated
in calculating the critical behavior.
99

Fig. 44. The phase diagram of U Cu5x P dx . At low dopings and temperatures the
system is in an antiferromgnetic phase. In the undoped sample (x = 0): TN = 15 K
with a magnetization 1B . For doping x = 1 and 1.5 the specific heat Cv /T T
(for x = 1) while displaying weak logarithmic characteristics for x = 1.5. Similarly,
the susceptibility (T ) ln T and T 0.25 (for x = 1, 1.5 respectively). Courtesy
of M. C. Aronson.

As an example in the second category, we show in Fig. 44 the phase diagram of

and some of the resistivity data of the heavy fermion compound UCu5x P dx .
There are several other compounds in this category also; for a review we refer
to [160,165]. For a theoretical discussion of the scaling properties of some of
this class of problems see [27].
For x < 1, there is an (antiferromagnetic) ordered state at low temperatures,
while for x > 2, a spin-glass phase appears. At rst sight, one would therefore
expect possible SFL behavior only near the critical composition x = 1 and
near x = 2. The remarkable observation however is that over a whole range
of intermediate compositions, one observes anomalous behavior of the type
[29,30]
= 0 BT 1/3 ,

T 1/3

(188)

The data for that show this power law behavior for UCu3.5 P d1.5 and UCu1 P d
are shown in Fig. 45. The fact that this is genuine scaling behavior is independently conrmed [29,30] from the fact that the frequency dependent susceptibility, measured by neutron scattering, shows a very good collapse of the
data with the scaling assumption
(, T ) = T 1/3

(189)

In passing, we note that this as well as the result for in CeCuAu are examples
100

Fig. 45. The temperature dependence of the static susceptibility of 0 (T ) for both
U Cu4 P d and U Cu3.5 P d1.5 , showing that for both compounds 0 (T ) has a low temperature divergence as T 1/3 . The measuring field is 1 Tesla. From Aronson et al.
[29,30].

of an anomalous dimension, as the engineering dimension of the susceptibility

is 1/energy see the remark made just after Eq. (172).
Again, none of this behavior nds a clear explanation in any of the well-studied
models. One is tempted to use the critical points of impurity models (see for
example [69] and references therein), but runs into the diculty of having
to tune to special symmetries. The ideas of critical points of metallic spinglasses (see for example [209] and also [219]), although theoretically appealing,
are also not obviously applicable over such a wide range of composition. It
must be mentioned however that NMR evidence does show clear evidence
for the inhomogeneity in the singular part of the magnetic uctuations in
several heavy fermion compounds [41]. This has inspired models of varying
sophistication (see [173] and references therein, and also [54]) in which the
Kondo-temperature itself has a inhomogeneous distribution. It is possible to
t the properties with reasonable distributions but there is room for a deeper
examination of the theoretical issues related to competition of disorder, Kondo
eects and magnetic-interaction between the magnetic moments.

6.4 Special complications in heavy fermion physics

In heavy fermion compounds, there is often an additional complication that
besets treating a QCP as a simple antiferromagnetic transition coupled to itinerant electrons. Often such materials exhibit magnetic order of the f -electrons
(with magnetic moments of the O(1B ) per f -electron). Thus, such materials have local moments in the ordered phase; so the disappearance of the
(anti)ferromagnetic order at a quantum critical point is accompanied by a
metal-insulator transition of the f -electrons. This means that the volume of
101

Fig. 46. Schematic occupation number function nk for U P t3 and for U P d3 .

the Fermi-surface changes in the transition.

We may illustrate the above scenario by comparing UP t3 , a Heavy fermion
compound with eective mass of the order of 100, with UP d3 , an ordinary
metal with eective mass of O(1) in which the f-electrons are localized. A
schematic summary of the momentum occupation nk for the two cases is
shown in Fig. 46: in the former nk is shown with two discontinuities, one
small O(102) representing the large renormalisation in the eective mass of
f -electrons while the other is close to 1 representing the modest renormalisation of s and d-electrons. The other case, representative of UP d3 has just
one Fermi surface with a jump in nk of close to 1. The Fermi surface in the
former encloses the number of electrons equal to the sum of the f and s-d electrons while the latter includes only the s-d electrons. This is consistent with
de Haas-van Alphen measurements as well as the band structures calculations of the two compounds; but the band-structure calculation must be done
with the f-electrons assumed as itinerant in the former and part of the localized core in the latter. The magnetic transitions in heavy fermion compounds
(with ordered moment of O(1B )) occurs through the conversion of itinerant
f -electrons to localized electrons. So the Fermi surface on the two sides of
the transition must switch between the two schematic representations in Fig.
46. The problem couples the metal-insulator transition of the f -electrons to
the magnetic uctuations those of itinerant electrons on one side and of interacting local moments on the other. The uctuations of the metal-insulator
transition and the Fermi surfaces is an important part of the problem. Some
theoretical work with these ideas in mind is available [227]. Another possible
approach is to generate an eective Hamiltonian for the heavy fermion lattice
from a pairwise sum of the eective Hamiltonian deduced from the two-Kondo
impurity problems discussed in section 3.9 and study its instabilities. The two
impurity problem contains the rudiments of some of the essential physics.
In connection with the data in CeCu6x Aux , we have discussed two important
puzzles: the non-trivial exponent dM /z measured by (k, ), and the coupling
of fermions to the local uctuations alone for transport properties. In the other
102

category (impurity-dominated) the rst puzzle reoccurs; the second puzzle

may be explained more easily since the measured uctuation spectrum (k, )
is in fact kindependent. Both puzzles reoccur in the SFL phenomena in the
cuprate compounds to be discussed in section 7.

6.5 Effects of impurities on Quantum Critical Points

As is well known, randomness can have an important eect on classical phase
transitions. Two classes of quenched disorder are distinguished: First, impurities coupling quadratically to the order parameter [116] or, equivalently,
impurities which may be used to dene a local transition temperature Tc (r);
the second class concerns impurities coupling linearly to the order parameter
[123]. The so-called Harris criterion, for the rst class, tells us that the disorder
is relevant, i.e. changes the exponents or turns the transition to a crossover, if
the specic heat exponent of the pure system is positive or, equivalently, if
d 2 < 0 .

(190)

For application to QCP phenomena the value of to be used is dierent

in the quantum uctuation regime and the quasi-classical regime 32 For the
latter should be dened by the correlation length (T Tc )1 for a
xed (p pc ) while deep in the former, near T = 0 it should be dened by
(p pc )2 . Accordingly the eect of disorder depends on the direction
one approaches the QCP. Similarly the celebrated Imry-Ma argument [123]
for linearly-coupled disorder can be generalized to QCPs.
In problems of fermions, additional eects of disorder arise because the vertices coupling the impurity to the fermions can be renormalized due to the
singularity in the uctuation of the pure system [256]. Not too much work
has been done along these lines. A simple example is the eect of magnetic
impurities near a ferromagnetic transition [147]. The growth of the magnetic
correlation length converts a single-channel Kondo eect to a multi-channel
Kondo eect with a regime in which the singularities discussed in section 3.8
for the degenerate multi-channel Kondo eect may be realized without tuning any parameters [157]. This may be relevant to the deviations from the
predictions of the pure case discussed here in the properties near the QCP in
MnSi. Extensions of these ideas to antiferromagnetic and other QCPs would
be quite worthwhile.
32

Actually, the Harris criterion is derived in the form (190) for and d, not in terms
of the exponent . This is particularly important at QCPs, since as we discussed
in section 6.2 for QCPs one is often above the upper critical dimension where the
hyperscaling relation d 2 = breaks down.

103

(a)
Fig. 47. (a) Schematic structure of the copper-oxide ab-planes in La2 CuO4 . Ba
or Sr substitution for La in the parent compound La2 CuO4 introduces holes in
the CuO2 planes. The structure of other high Tc materials differs only in ways
which do not affect the central issues, e.g., it is oxygen doping in Y Ba2 Cu3 O6+x
that provides planar holes. The magnetic moments of the planar copper atoms
are ordered antiferromagnetically in the ground state of the undoped compounds.
From [127]. (b) The orbital unit cell of the Cu-O compounds in the ab plane.
The minimal orbital set contains a dx2 y2 orbital of Cu and px and a py orbital of
oxygen per unit cell.

The High-Tc Problem in the Copper-Oxide Based Compounds

About 105 scientic papers have appeared in the eld of high-Tc superconductors since their discovery in 1987. For reviews, see the Proceedings [164] of the
latest in a series of Tri-annual Conferences or [106]. Although no consensus
on the theory of the phenomena has been arrived at, the intensive investigation has resulted in a body of consistent experimental information. Here
we emphasize only those properties which are common to all members of the
copper-oxide family and in which Singular Fermi-liquid properties appear to
play the governing role.
The high-Tc materials are complicated, and many fundamental condensed matter physics phenomena play a role in some or other part of their phase diagram.
As we shall see, the normal state near the composition of the highest Tc shows
convincing evidence of being a weak form of a SFL, a Marginal Fermi Liquid.
Since the vertices coupling fermions to the uctuations for transport in the
normal state and those for Cooper pairing through exchange of uctuations
can be derived from each other, the physics of SFL and the mechanism for
superconductivity in the cuprates are intimately related.

104

Fig. 48. a) The crystal structure of La2 CuO4 . From [187]. Electronic couplings
along the c direction are weak. b) Schematic of the CuO2 plane. The arrows indicate
the alignment of spins in the antiferromagnetic ground state of La2 CuO4 . Speckeled
shading indicates oxygen p orbitals; coupling through these leads to superexchange
in the insulating state.

7.1 Some basic features of the high-Tc materials

A wide variety of Cu-O containing compounds with dierent chemical formulae and dierent structures belong in the high-Tc family. The common
chemical and structural features are that they all contain two-dimensional
stacks of CuO2 planes which are negatively charged with neutralizing ions
and other structures in between the planes. The minimal information about
the structure in the Cu O planes and the important electronic orbitals on
Cu and on Oxygen is shown in Fig. 47. The structure of one of the simpler
compound La2x Srx CuO4 is shown in Fig. 48(a) with the CuO2 plane shown
again in Fig. 48(b). For x = 0 the CuO2 plane has a negative charge of 2 per
unit cell which is nominally ascribed to the Cu2+ (O 2 )2 ionic conguration.
Since O 2 has a lled shell while Cu2+ has a hole in the 3d shell, the Cu-O
planes have a half-lled band according to the non-interacting or one-electron
model. But at x = 0 the compound is an antiferromagnetic insulator with
S = 1/2 at the Copper sites. This is well known to be characteristic of a
Mott-type insulator in which the electron-electron interactions determine the
ground state. Actually [282,251,252] copper-oxide compounds at x = 0 belong
to the Charge-Transfer sub-category of Mott- insulators. But at x = 0 the
ground state and low-energy properties of all Mott-insulators are qualitatively
the same. By substituting divalent Sr for the trivalent La in the above example, holes are introduced in the copper-oxide planes with density x per unit
cell.
Fig. 49 is the generic phase diagram of the Cu-O compounds in the T -x
105

Fig. 49. Generic phase diagram of the cuprates for hole doping. The portion labeled
by AFM is the antiferromagnetic phase, and the dome marked by SC is the superconducting phase. Crossovers to other characteristic properties are marked and
discussed in the text. Not shown is a low-temperature insulating phase in region
II due to disorder.

plane. In the few compounds with electron doping which have been synthesized
properties vary with doping density in a similar way.
Antiferromagnetism disappears for x typically less than 0.05 to be replaced
by a superconducting ground state starting at somewhat larger x. The superconducting transition temperature is peaked for x typically between 0.15 and
0.20 and disappears for x typically less than 0.25. We will dene xm to be
the density for maximum Tc . Conventionally, copper-oxides with x < xm are
referred to as underdoped, with x = xm as optimally doped and with x > xm
as overdoped. Superconductivity is of the d-wave singlet symmetry.
The superconducting region in the T -x plane is surrounded by three distinct
regions: a region marked (III) with properties characteristic of a Landau Fermiliquid, a region marked (I) in which (marginally) SFL properties are observed
and a region marked (II) which is often called the pseudo gap region whose correlations in the ground state still remain a matter of conjecture. The topology
of Fig. 49 around the superconducting region is that expected around a QCP.
Indeed it resembles the phase diagram of some heavy fermion superconductors
(see e.g. Fig. 39) except that region II has no long-range antiferromagnetic order the best experimental information is that, generically, spin rotational
invariance as well as (lattice) translational invariance remains unbroken in the
passage from (I) to (II) in the Cu-O compounds.
The quantity (T ) Cv (T )/T and the magnetic susceptibility (T ), which are
temperature independent for a Landau-Fermi-liquid begin to decline rapidly
[154] in the passage from region I to region II, which we will call Tp (x), but
106

Fig. 50. The electronic contribution to the specific heat as a function of temperature
for underdoped, optimally doped and overdoped samples of Y0.8 Ca0.2 Ba2 Cu3 O7x .
For optimally doped and overdoped samples the heat capacity remains constant
as the temperature is lowered, then shows the characteristic features at the superconducting transition temperature Tc and rapidly approaches zero in the superconducting state. For underdoped samples, however, the heat capacity starts to fall
well above Tc as the temperature is reduced, and there is only a small peak at
Tc indicating much smaller condensation energy than the optimal and overdoped
compounds [154]. From [34].

without any singular feature. However, the transport properties resistivity,

Nuclear relaxation rate (NMR), etc. show sharper change in their temperature dependence at Tp (x). The generic deduced electronic contribution to
the specic heat for overdoped, optimally-doped and underdoped compounds
is shown in Fig. 50. The generic behavior for an underdoped compound for
the resisitivity, Nuclear relaxation rate and Knight shift proportional to
the uniform susceptibility is shown in Fig. 51. ARPES (Angle Resolved
Photoemission) measurements show a diminution of the electronic density of
states starting at about Tp (x) with a four-fold symmetry: no change along
the (, ) directions and maximum change along the (, 0) directions. The
magnitude of the anisotropic pseudogap is several times Tp (x).
It is important to note that given the observed change in the single-particle
spectra, the measured specic heat and the magnetic susceptibility in the
pseudogap region are consistent with the simple calculation using the singleparticle density of states alone. Nothing fancier is demanded by the data, at
least at in its present state. Moreover, the transport properties as well as the
thermodynamic properties at dierent x can be collapsed to scaling functions
with the same Tp (x) as a parameter [275].

107

Fig. 51. Signatures of the pseudogap in various transport properties for the underdoped compound Y Ba2 Cu4 O8 . At high temperatures the resistivity (solid line)
decreases linearly with temperature. In the pseudogap region it drops faster with
temperature before falling to zero at the superconducting transition temperature
(about 85K). Similarly the NMR relaxation time displays characteristics of the optimum doped compounds above about 200 K (squares on dashed line) but deviates
strongly from it in the pseudogap region. The NMR shift (top squares) also deviates from the temperature-independent behavior (not shown) below the inset of
the pseudogap. Note that the pseudogap expresses itself as a sharper change with
temperature in the transport properties compared to the equilibrium properties specific heat and magnetic susceptibility. [45,278,10]. From [34].

7.2 Marginal Fermi Liquid behavior of the normal state

Every measured transport property in Region I is unlike those of Landau

Fermi-liquids. The most commonly measured of these is the dc resistivity
shown for many dierent compounds at the optimum composition in Fig.
52 including one with Tc 10K. The resistivity is linear from near Tc to
the decomposition temperature of the compound. As shown in Fig. 51, in the
under-doped region the departure from linearity commences at a temperature Tp (x) marked in Fig. 49. Similarly, the cross-over into region (III)
shown in Fig. 49 is accompanied by Fermi-liquid like properties. Wherever
measurements are available, every other measured transport property shows
similar changes.
The dierent measured transport properties study the response of the compounds over quite dierent momentum and energy regions. For example, the
Raman scattering studies the long wavelength density and current response at
long wavelength but over a range of frequencies from low O(1cm1 ) to high,
O(104 cm1 ). On the other hand nuclear relaxation rate T11 depends on the
magnetic uctuations at very low frequencies but integrates over all momenta,
so that the short wave-length uctuations dominate. In 1989 it was proposed
108

Fig. 52. Resistivity as a function of temperature for various high temperature superconductors. From [38].

[253,254] that a single hypothesis about the particle-hole excitation spectra

captures most of the diverse transport anomalies.The hypothesis is that the
density as well as magnetic uctuation spectrum has an absorptive part with
the following property:

(q, )

= o /T , for T ,
= o sgn() ,
for c > T .

(191)

Here o is the order of the bare single-particle density of states N(0) and
c is an upper cut-o. The uctuation spectrum is assumed to have only
a weak momentum dependence, except at very long wavelength, where a q 2
dependence is required for uctuations of conserved quantities like density or
spin (in the absence of spin-orbit interactions). A form which implements these
requirements for the conserved quantities with a rather arbitrary crossover
function to get the dierent regimes of /T is
(q, )

xq 2
,
( 2 + 2 x2 )

for vF q

x,

(192)

where x = for /T T and x = T for /T 1.

Using the Kramers-Kronig relations, one deduces that the real part of the
corresponding correlation functions have a log(x) divergence at all momenta
except the conserved quantities where the divergence does not extend to vF q
x. Thus compressibility and magnetic susceptibility are nite. (Besides (191),
109

(192) analytic uctuation spectra of the Fermi-liquid form is of course also

present.)
The spectral function (191) is unlike those for a Landau Fermi-liquid discussed in section 2, which always have a scale the Fermi-energy, Debyefrequency, or spin-wave energy, etc. which is obtained from parameters
of the Hamiltonian. Such parameters have been replaced by T . As we have
discussed in section 6, this scale-invariance of (191) is characteristic of uctuations in the quasi-classical regime of a QCP. Eq. (191) characterizes the uctuations around the QCP: comparing with Eq. (174), the exponent dM /z = 0
and 1/z = 0. These are equivalent to the statement that the momentum dependence is negligibly important compared to the frequency dependence. This
is a very unusual requirements for a QCP in an itinerant problem: the spatial
correlation length plays no role in determining the frequency dependence of
the critical properties.
The experimental results for the various transport properties for compositions
near the optimum are consistent in detail with Eq. (191), supplemented with
the elastic scattering rate due to impurities (see later). We refer the reader
to the original literature for the details. The temperature independence and
the frequency independence in Raman scattering intensity up to of O(1eV )
directly follows from (192). Eq. (192) also gives a temperature independent
contribution to the nuclear relaxation rate T11 as is observed for Cu nuclei. The transport scattering rates have the same temperature dependence as
the single-particle scattering rate. The observed anomalous optical conductivity can be directly obtained by using the continuity equation together with
Eq. (192), or by rst calculating the single-particle scattering rate and the
transport scattering rate. The single-particle scattering rate is independently
measured in ARPES experiments and provides the most detailed test of the
assumed hypothesis.
To calculate the single-particle scattering rate, assume to begin with a constant coupling matrix element g for the scattering of particles by the singular
uctuations. We shall return to this point in the section on microscopic theory. Then provided there is no singular contribution to the self-energy from
particle-particle uctuations, the graph in Fig. 53 represents the singular selfenergy exactly. It is important to note that for this to be true, Eq. (192)
is to be regarded as the exact (not irreducible) propagator for particle-hole
uctuations; it should not be iterated.
(q, ) can now be evaluated straight forwardly to nd a singular contribution,
(, q) g 2 (o )2

110

ln

i x
c
2

(193)

Fig. 53. (a) Diagram for the singular contribution to the one-particle self-energy
with the fluctuating (q, ). gs are the vertices which in microscopic theory [255]
is shown to have important momentum dependence, but which gives negligible momentum dependence to the self-energy. (b) For 0 (q, ) which is momentum independent, a total vertex may sometimes be usefully defined, which has the same
frequency dependence as Eq. (193) and which is also q-independent. The lines are
the exact single-particle Greens functions.

for x c and vF |(q kF )| c . The noteworthy points about (193) are:

(1) The single particle scattering rate is proportional to x rather than to x2
as in Landau Fermi-liquids.
(2) The momentum independence of the single-particle scattering rate.
(3) The quasi-particle renormalization amplitude
Z=

1 ln

x
c

1

(194)

scales to zero logarithmically as x 0. Hence the name Marginal Fermiliquid.

(4) The single-particle Greens function
G(, q) =

1
(q ) (q, )

(195)

has a branch cut rather than a pole. It may be written as

Z(x)
,
(
q
) i/

(196)

where q is the renormalized single-particle energy:

q
= Z(q ) ZvF (q kF )

(197)

for small |q kF |. Also 1 (x) = Z Im(), and the eective Fermi-velocity

vF = ZvF has a frequency and temperature dependent correction.
(5) The single-particle occupation number has no discontinuity at the Fermisurface, but its derivative does, see Fig. 54. So the Fermi-surface remains a
well-dened concept both in energy and in momentum space.
111

Fig. 54. The T = 0 distribution of bare particles in a marginal Fermi liquid. No

discontinuity exists at kF but the derivative of the distribution is discontinuous.

The predictions of (195) have been tested in detail in ARPES measurements

only recently. ARPES measures the spectral function
A(q, ) =

(q, )
1
.
[ (q ) (q, )]2 + [ (q, )]2

(198)

In ARPES experiments, the energy distribution curve at xed momentum

(EDC) and the momentum distribution curve at xed energy (MDC) can
both be measured. It follows from Eq. (198) that if is momentum independent perpendicular to the Fermi-surface, then an MDC scanned along k
for should have a Lorentzian shape plotted against (k kF ) with a
For a Marginal Fermi Liquid (MFL), this
width proportional to ()/vF (k).
width should be proportional to x. The agreement of the measured lineshape
to a Lorentzian and the variation of the width with temperature are shown in
Figs. 55. Fig. 56 shows the momentum width measured in dierent directions
The Fermi-velocity v(k)
is measured through the EDC with the conclusion
k.
to within the experimental errors. The data shows
that it is independent of k
that the temperature dependence is consistent with linearity with a coecient
although the error bars are huge near the (, 0) direction.
independent of k
Besides the MFL contribution, there is also a temperature independent contribution to the width which is strongly angle-dependent, to which we will soon
turn. The ambiguity of the temperature (and frequency) dependence near the
(, 0) direction is removed by the EDC measurements. In Fig. 56 EDC at
the Fermi-surface in the (, ) direction and the (, 0) directions are shown
together with a t to the MFL spectral function with a constant contribution
added to . EDCs have the additional problem of an energy-independent
experimental background. This has also been added in the t. In both directions has a contribution proportional to with the same coecient within
the experimental uncertainty. In summary, the ARPES experiments give that
(k, ; T )
= (kF ) + M F L (, T ).
112

(199)

Fig. 55. (a) Momentum distribution curves for different temperatures. The solid
lines are Lorentzian fits. (b) Momentum widths of MDCs for three samples (circles,
squares, and diamonds). The thin lines are T -linear fits which show consistency with
Eqn.(198) and the MFL hypothesis. The resistivity (solid black line) is also shown.
The double-headed arrow shows the momentum resolution of the experiment. From
Johnson et al. [246].

F ) can only be understood as due

The (, T )-independent contribution (k
F can be understood by the
to impurity scattering [2]. Its dependence on k
assumption that in well-prepared samples, the impurities lie between the CuO planes and therefore only lead to small angle scattering of electrons in the
F ) at k
F then depends on the forward scattering
plane. The contribution (k
F which increase from the
matrix element and the local density of states at k
(, ) direction to the (, 0) direction. This small angle contribution has several
very important consequences: (i) relative insensitivity of residual resistivity
to disorder, (ii) relative insensitivity of d-wave superconductivity transition
temperature to the elastic part of the single-particle scattering rate [134],
and (iii) most signicantly relative insensitivity to the anomalous Hall eect
and magneto-resistance. Such anomalous magneto-transport properties follow
from a proper solution of the Boltzmann equation including both small-angle
elastic scattering and angle-independent MFL inelastic scattering [260].
The momentum independence of the inelastic part of is crucial to the SFL
properties of the cuprates. Because the inelastic scattering to all angles on
the Fermi-surface is the same, i.e. s-wave scattering, the vertex corrections
to transport of vector quantities like particle current and energy current are
zero. It follows that the momentum transport scattering rate measured in
resistivity or optical conductivity and the energy transport rate measured in
thermal conductivity have the same (, T ) dependence as the single-particle
scattering rate 1/ (, T ).
113

Fig. 56. Fits of the MFL self-energy + h to the experimental data, according to
(199). Estimated uncertainties of 15% in and 25% in . (a) A scan along the
(1,0) direction, = 0.12, = 0.27; (b) A scan along the (1,1) direction, = 0.035,
= 0.35. From Kaminsky and co-workers, [131].

Fig. 57. Left panel: Fermi surface of the optimally doped Bi2212, measure in the
superconducting state. Indicated are the lines (1) to (5) on which the temperature
dependence is measured in the experiments by Valla et al. [247]. Typical spectra are
shown for line (2) in the normal (b) and superconducting state (c), as well as for
line (4), in the normal (d) and superconducting state (c). Right panel: momentum
widths as a function of temperature for different positions on the Fermi surface,
obtained by fitting the Momentum Distribution Curves with Lorentzian lineshapes
in the same experiments. Widths are measured at the Fermi level and at the leading
edge, in the normal and in superconducting (grey region) state, respectively.

114

Recently far-infrared conductivity measurements [67] have been analyzed and

shown to be consistent with 1/ (, T ) deduced from MFL including the logarithmic corrections.
As already discussed no singular correction to the magnetic susceptibility is
to be expected on the basis of (191). But the specic heat should have a
logarithmic correction so that
(T ) = 0 [1 + ln(c /T )] .

(200)

Such a logarithmic correction has not yet been deciphered in the data presumably because the electronic specic heat in the normal state is less than
O(102 ) of the total measured specic heat and must be extracted by a subtraction procedure which is not suciently accurate.

7.3 General Requirements on a Microscopic Theory

The MFL self-energy, Eq. (193), has been veried in such detail in its (, T, q)
dependence that it is hard to see how any theory of CuO compounds can be
relevant to the experiments without reproducing it (or a very close approximation to it) in Region I of the phase diagram of Fig. 49. Such a scale-invariant
self-energy is characteristic of the quasi-classical regime of a QCP and indeed
the topological features of the phase diagram are consistent with their being
a QCP at xc near the composition for the highest Tc (Alternatively, a QCP in
the overdoped region where Tc vanishes is predicted in some approaches, like in
[220]). To date, no way has been found to obtain Eq. (192) except through the
scale-invariant form of uctuations which is momentum independent (z )
as in Eq. (191).
A consistent and applicable microscopic theory of the copper-oxides must show
a QCP with uctuations of the form (192). This is a very unusual requirement
for a QCP in a homogeneous extended system for at least two reasons. First,
the uctuations must have a negligible q-dependence compared to the frequency dependence, i.e. z and second, the singularity in the spectrum
should just have logarithmic form; i.e. there should be no exponentiation of
the logarithm giving rise to power laws. Such singularities do arise, as we discussed in section 3, in models of isolated impurities under certain conditions
but they disappear when the impurities are coupled; recoil kills the singularities. The requirement of negligible q/ dependence runs contrary to the idea
of critical slowing down in the uctuation regime of the usual transitions, in
which the frequency dependence of the uctuations becomes strongly peaked
at zero-frequency because the spatial correlation length diverges.
115

Another crucial thing to note is that any known QCP (in more than one
dimension) is the end of a line of continuous transitions at T = 0. Region II
(at least at T = 0) must then have a broken symmetry (This includes part of
Region III, which is also superconducting). Experiments appear to exclude any
broken translational symmetry or spin-rotational symmetry for this region 33
although as discussed in section 7.1, a sharp change in transport properties is
observed along with a four-fold symmetric diminution of the ARPES intensity
for low energies at T Tp (x). If there is indeed a broken symmetry, it is of a
very elusive kind; experiments have not yet found it.
A related question is how a momentum-independent (q, , T ) can be the
uctuation spectrum of a transition which leads to an anisotropic state as
in Region II. Furthermore, how can such a spectrum lead to an anisotropic
superconducting state because it is unavoidable that (q, , T ) of Eq. (192)
which determines the inelastic properties in Region I also be responsible for the
superconductive instability. After all, the process leading to the normal selfenergy, Fig. 53, the superconductive self-energy, and the Cooper pair vertex,
Fig. 58, are intimately related. Given Im(q, , T ) the eective interaction in
the particle-particle channel is
Vpair (k, k q) = g 2 Re (q, ) .

(201)

Re(q; ) is negative for all q and for all c c . So we do have a mechanism for superconductive pairing in the Cu-O problem given by the normal
state properties just as the normal state self-energy and transport properties
of say P b tell us about the mechanism for superconductivity in P b. In fact
given that the normal state properties give that the upper cut-of frequency is
of O(103 )K and the coupling constant g 2 N(0) is of O(1), the correct scale
of Tc is obtained. The important puzzle is, how can this mechanism produce
d-wave pairing given that (q, ) is momentum independent. How can one
obtain momentum-independent inelastic self-energy in the normal state and a
d-wave superconducting order parameter from the same uctuations?
We summarize in the next section a microscopic theory which attempts to
meet these requirements and answer some of the questions raised.

33

A new lattice symmetry due to lattice distortions or antiferromagnetism, if significant, would change the fermi-surface because the size of the Brillouin zone would
decrease. This would be visible both in ARPES measurements as well as in hall
effect measurements.

116

Fig. 58. The Cooper pair-vertex and the normal state self-energy, Fig. 53, are intimately related.

7.4 Microscopic Theory

There is no consensus on even the minimum necessary model Hamiltonian
to describe the essential properties in the phase-diagram, Fig. 49, of the CuO
compounds. It is generally agreed that, since other transition metal compounds
do not share the properties of CuO compounds, a model Hamiltonian with
some rather special features is called for. Two such features are
(A) They are two-dimensional with an insulating antiferromagnetic ground
state and spin S = 1/2 per unit cell at half lling. Although not unique this
feature is rare. If this is the determining feature, a two-dimensional Hubbard
model is adequate. [24]. Even this model is not soluble in d = 2.
(B) CuO are the extreme limit of charge transfer compounds [282] in which
charge uctuations in the metallic state occur almost equally on Oxygen and
Copper. Then the longer-range ionic interactions, which in magnitude are
comparable to the on-site interactions have a crucial role to play in the lowenergy dynamics in the metallic state through excitonic eects. A model with
both Cu and O orbitals, hopping between them, and the excitonic interactions
besides the on-site repulsions is then required [251,252]. This is of course even
harder to deal with than the Hubbard model.
Numerous attempts have been made using one or the other such models to
obtain SFL behavior. We briey discuss the motivations for the pursuit of
model (A) before summarizing in a little more detail the only attempt to
obtain the phenomenlogical uctuation spectrum of Eq. (191), and which relies
on a model of type (B).

7.4.1 The Doped Hubbard Model

The investigations of the copper-oxide problem from this point of view asks
some valid and deep questions [24]. How does a low concentration of holes move
through the spin congurations in a two-dimensional model with restriction
of zero double occupancy? We have sketched in section 4.8 the diculties of
connecting to the same problem in one dimension when the ground state at
117

zero doping is an antiferromagnet. In fact analytic [213] and numerical [162]

answers to the question for a single hole show the spectral weight of a heavy
particle with an incoherent part composed of multiple spin-wave polaronic
cloud. Simply extrapolated (a dangerous thing to do), a Fermi-liquid is expected. The larger zero-point uctuations of the S = 1/2 model, compared
to a large spin model only change the relative weight of the coherent and
the incoherent parts. But more subtle possibilities must be considered. The
antiferromagnetic ground state of a Heisenberg S = 1/2 model (or the undoped non-degenerate Hubbard model) in two-dimensions is close in energy
to a singlet ground state. A possible description of such a state is as linear
combination on a basis of singlet-bonds of pairs of spins. As noted earlier, such
itinerant bond states have been termed Resonating Valence Bonds (by analogy
to the ground state of Benzene like molecules). The massive degeneracy of the
singlet bond-basis raises interesting possibilities. If the quantum uctuations
of spins were (signicantly) larger than allowed by S = 1/2, such states would
indeed be the ground state, as they are in the one-dimensional model or twodimensional models with additional frustrating interactions [6]. It is possible
that by doping with holes in the S = 1/2 Heisenberg model, the additional
quantum uctuations induce a ground state and low-lying excitations which
utilize the massive degeneracy of RVB states. Especially intriguing is the fact
that resonating valence ground state may be looked on as the projection of
the BCS ground state to a xed number of particles [24]. Furthermore in the
normal state this line of reasoning is likely to lead to a SFL.
A specic proposal incorporating the RVB idea [136] relies on the ground state
of the half-lled model to be localised dimers. Then defects in this state due to
deviation from half-lling can plausibly support excitations which are charged
spinless bosons. Further work on this idea may be found in [210,176]. Related
ideas were put forth in [80].
These are very attractive set of ideas and no proof exists that they are disallowed. We have already considered an implementation of these ideas in section
5.2 on generalized gauge theories. As discussed, controlled calculations using
these ideas are hard to come by. Moreover, what theoretical results do exist do not correspond in a persuasive way to the experimental results on the
copper-oxide materials.
One should take special note here of the idea of Anyon superconductivity
which besides being a lovely theoretical idea, is founded on the solution to
a well dened model, and has clear experimental predictions. Laughlin and
collaborators [148,130,89] found a specic model with long-range four spin
interactions for which his quantum hall wavefunction is the ground state.
Therefore Time-reversal and Parity are spontaneously broken in this state.
This state is superconducting. The predicted Time-reversal broken properties
have not been observed experimentally [233].
118

Fig. 59. Three bands result from the orbitals shown in Fig. 47(b) in a one-electron
calculation; two of these are shown. The chemical potential lies in the anti-bonding
band and is varied by the doping concentration. The other band shown is crucial
for the theory using excitonic effects as in [255].

An alternative idea from the microscopic characterization of these materials as doped Hubbard models is that a dilute concentration of holes in the
Hubbard model is likely to phase separate or form ordered one-dimensional
charge-density wave/spin-density wave structures [283,284,84]. There exists
both empirical [242] and computational [272] support for this idea at least for
a very dilute concentration of holes. For concentrations close to optimum compositions these structures appear in experiment to exist only at high energies
with short correlation lengths and times and small amplitudes in the majority
of copper-oxygen compounds. Their relation to SFL properties is again not
theoretically or empirically persuasive.

7.4.2 The excitonic Interactions Model

This relies on a model of type (B ). A brief sketch of the calculations leading to
a QCP and a MFL spectrum is given here. We refer the reader to [251,253,260]
for details.
At half-lling the ground state and the low-lying excitations of such models
are identical to the Hubbard model. But important dierences can arise in the
metallic state. Consider the one-electron structure of such models. The O-O
hopping in the lattice structure with dx2 y2 orbitals in Cu and px , py orbitals
on O, as shown in Fig. 47, produces a weakly dispersing non-bonding band
while the Cu-O hopping produces bonding and anti-bonding bands see
Fig. 59. We need consider only the lled non-bonding band and the partially
lled anti-bonding bands shown in Fig. 59.
In the mean-eld approximation such an electronic structure together with
the on-site interaction and the ionic interactions is unstable to an unusual
phase provided the latter summed over the nearest neighbors is of the order or
larger than the bandwidth. In this phase translational symmetry is preserved
119

Fig. 60. The current pattern in the time-reversal breaking phase predicted for Region
II of the phase diagram.

but time-reversal symmetry and the four-fold rotation symmetry about the
Cu sites is broken. The ground state has a current pattern, sketched in Fig.
60, in which each unit cell breaks up into four plaquettes with currents in
the direction shown. The variation of the transition temperature with doping
x is similar to the line Tp (x) in Fig. 38, so that there is a QCP at x = xc .
Experiments have been proposed to look for the elusive broken symmetry
sketched in Fig. 60 [259].
The long-range interactions in the model also favor other time-reversal breaking phases which also break translational invariance. This is known from calculations on ladder models [189]. Such states have also been proposed for
copper-oxide compounds [140,121,57].
Our primary interest here is how the mechanism of transition to such a phase
produces the particular SFL uctuation spectrum (192) in Region I of the
phase diagram. The driving mechanism for the transition is the excitonic singularity, due to the scattering between the states of the partially lled conduction band c and the valence band v of Fig. 59. This scattering is of course
what we considered in sections 3.5 and 4.9 for the problem of X-ray edge
singularities for the case that the interband interaction V in Eq. (55) is small
and the valence band is dispersionless (i.e., the no recoil case). Actually, the
problem is exactly soluble for the no-recoil case even for large V [64]. For large
enough V the energy to create the exciton, ex , is less than the v-c splitting
. The excitonic lineshape is essentially the one sketched in Fig. 19(b) and
given by Eq. (56) for > ex , but is now the phase shift modulo which
is the value required to pull a bound state below . The excitonic instability
arises when ex 0.
120

Fig. 61. Sketch of the development of the particle-hole spectra in the microscopic
model for the cuprates.

The eect of a nite mass or recoil on the excitonic spectra is to smoothen the
edge singularity on the scale of the valence band dispersion between k = 0 and
k = kF . The phase shift or the interaction energy V no longer determines
the low-energy shape of the resonance. V does determine its location. The
low-energy uctuation spectra is determined by the following argument: Let
us concentrate on q = 0 which is obviously where Imex (q, ) is largest. The
absorptive part of a particle-hole spectra must be odd in frequency:
Im (q, ) = Im (q, ) .

(202)

As V increases, Imex (0, ) must shift its weight towards zero-frequency as

shown in Fig. 61. Let us continue to denote by |ex | the characteristic energy
of the maximum in Im. For || small compared to |ex |, Im(0, ) while
for || large compared to |ex |, it is very slowly varying up to a cut-o c on
the scale of the Fermi-energy. Then by Kramers-Kronig transform the leading
term in
Re(0, ) ln (c / max(x , )) .

(203)

For any nite |ex |, Re is nite and there is no instability. Only for |ex | 0,
i.e. Im(0, ) sgn, Re(0, ) is singular ln || and there is an instability.
Thus in an excitonic instability of a Fermi-sea with a dispersive valence band,
the zero-temperature spectrum has the form (, 0) ln || + i sgn at the
instability. Given a parameter p such that the instability occurs only at pc , i.e.
ex (p pc ) 0, the generalization for nite temperature T and momentum
q and p 6= pc is

i
c
(q, ) =
+ ln
max(, T, ex(p))
max(, T, ex(p))
+a2 q 2 + (pc (T ) p)
121

i1

!1

(204)

Fig. 62. Singularity of interaction aaaa between states a near the chemical potential generated by the excitonic singularity between the states a of the conduction
band and states b of the valence band. The excitonic singularity is indicated by
the shaded block.

Here c is the frequency cut-o of O(). Since the binding energy is O(1eV),
the size of the exciton, a, is of the order of the lattice constant. The q dependence of (204) is negligible compared to the frequency dependence. The
exponent z is eectively innite. At p pc to logarithmic accuracy, the above
expression (204) is identical to the phenomenological hypothesis (192).
The eective low-energy interaction for states near the chemical potential,
which is sketched in Fig. 62, is singular when the excitonic resonance is at
low frequency. Here is an example of the mechanism mentioned under (v) in
section 2.6 where the irreducible interaction obtained by integrating over nonperturbed high-energy states is singular. This is of course only possible when
the interactions represented by the shaded block in Fig. 62 are large enough.
In relation to some of the questions raised about the phenemenology at the end
of the last subsection, the momentum dependence of the vertex coupling the
low energy fermions to the uctuations in. Figs. 53 and 58 has been evaluated
[258]. It is non-local with a form depending on the wave functions of the
conduction and valence bands and the leading result is


g(k, k ) sin(kx a/2) sin(kx a/2) sin(ky a/2) sin(ky a/2) .

(205)

Note that at (k k ) = 0 this is proportional to [cos(kx a) cos(ky a)]. This is

intimately related to the d-wave current distribution in the broken-symmetry
phase predicted for region (II), shown in Fig. 60. Eq. (205) is such that that
when diagram 53 is evaluated, the intermediate state momentum integration
makes the self-energy depend very weakly on the incoming momentum. But
when the pairing kernel of Fig. 58 is evaluated, its momentum dependent and
exhibits attraction in the d-wave channel.
Similarly, as has been shown [258], the vertex of Eq. (205) leads to an anisotropic
state with properties of the pseudo-gap state of region II below a temperature
Tp (x). The principal theoretical problem remaining with this point of view is
that a transition of the Ising class occurs at Tp (x)at least in mean-eld the122

ory. This would be accompanied by a feature in the specic heat unlike the
observations. 34
The microscopic theory reviewed above reproduces the principal features of
the phase diagram Fig. 49 of the copper-oxide superconductors, and of the SFL
properties. It also gives a mechanism for high temperature superconductivity
of the right symmetry. Further condence in the applicability of the theory to
the cuprates will rest on the observation of the predicted current pattern of
Fig. 60 in region II of the phase diagram 35 .

The Metallic State in Two-Dimensions

The distinction between metals and insulators and the metal-insulator transition has been a central problem in condensed matter physics for seven decades.
Despite the accumulated theoretical and empirical wisdom acquired over all
these years, the experimental observation made in 1995 of a metal-insulator
transition in two-dimensions [141] was a major surprise and is a subject of
great current controversy. The theoretical work in the 1980s [11,9092,149,14]
on disordered interacting electrons pointed to a major unsolved theoretical
problem in two dimensions. Infrared singularities were discovered in the scattering amplitudes which scaled to strong coupling where the theory is uncontrolled (The situation is similar to that after the singularities in the one- or
two-loop approximations in the Kondo problem were discovered revealing a
fascinating problem without providing the properties of the asymptotic low
temperature state). However the problem was not pursued and the eld lapsed
till the new experiments came along.
The 1980s theoretical work shows that this problem naturally belongs as a
subject in our study of Singular Fermi-Liquids. We will rst summarize the
principal theoretical ideas relevant to the problem before the 1995 experiments. We then briey summarize the principal results of these and subsequent experiments. Reviews of the experiments have appeared in [3,16,17].
There are two types of theoretical problems raised: the nature of the metallic
state and the mechanism of the metal-insulator transition. We will address
the former and only briey touch on the latter.
34

One might appeal to disorder to round off the transition, but this appears implausible quantitatively. More likely, the nature of the transition is strongly affected
by the Fluctuation spectra of the form of Eq. (191) and is unlikely to be of the Ising
class.
35 As already mentioned in section 2.6, ferromagnetism in some compounds has an
excitonic origin. The dynamics near such a transition should also exhibit features
of the edge-singularity as modified by recoil.

123

Fig. 63. Sketch of a MOSFET. Holes (or electrons) are trapped at the interface of
the semi-conductor and the insulator due to the band gap difference between them,
the dipole layer and the applied electric field. Two-dimensional electrons (holes)
may also be found by layered structures (heterostructures) of semi-conductors with
different band gaps such as GaAs and AlGaAs.

8.1 The two-dimensional Electron Gas

We consider an electron gas with a uniform positive background with no complications arising from the lattice structure this is how the many-electron
problem was originally formulated: the Jellium model. This situation is indeed
realized experimentally in MOSFETS (and heterostructures) in which an insulator is typically sandwiched between a metallic plate and a semiconductor
see Fig. 63. By applying an electric eld a two-dimensional charge layer
accumulates on the surface of the semiconductor adjacent to the insulator,
whose density can simply be changed by varying the eld strength (For details see [26]).. Similar geometries have been used to observe the Quantum
Hall Eects and the metal-insulator transition by varying the density 36 .
Typically we will be interested in phenomena when the average inter-electron
distance is O(10)O(102) nm. The thickness of the insulating layer is typically
more than 100 nm, so that the positive (capactive) charge on the insulator
provides a uniform background to a rst approximation. In Si samles, surface
roughness is the principle source of disorder at high densities, while at low
densities (in the regime where the transition takes place) ionized impurity
scattering dominates due to the fact that there is much less screening. In
GaAs, remote impurity scattering dominates, and this scattering is mostly
small-angle. This is the main reason the mobility in these samples is large.
36

Recently, novel high temperature superconductivity was observed in such a

FET geometry. Gate induced doping in such a Field Effect Transistor was employed
to introduce significant hole densities into C60 which became superconducting at
Tc = 52K! [214].

124

Neglecting disorder, the problem is characterized by rs , dened as the ratio of

the potential energy to the kinetic energy:
m e2
rs =
.

4
h2 n

(206)

Here n is the electron density, m the band mass, and the background static
dielectric constant. We can also write
rs2 a2o =

1
,
n

(207)

which expresses that rs is the radius of the circle whose area is equal to the
area per conduction electron, measured in units of the Bohr radius a0 . For a
two-valley band structure, as on the 110 surface of Si, the kinetic energy is
reduced and rs is twice that dened by Eqs. (206) and (207).
For rs 1, (the dense electron limit) the kinetic energy dominates and metallic behavior is expected. For rs 1, the potential energy dominates and a
crystalline state (Wigner crystal) is expected. The best current numerical estimates put the transition to the crystalline state at rsc 37 [238]. The entropy
at the transition is tiny, indicating that the radial distribution function for
the liquid state at low densities is similar to that of the crystal for distances
up to a few times rs a0 .
It is important to note for our subsequent study that magnetism is always
lurking close by. Reliable numerical calculations show that the magnetic state
in the Wigner crystal near the critical density is determined by multipleparticle exchanges [46]. On the metallic side the energy of the ferromagnetic
state is only a few percent above the unpolarized metallic or crystalline states
for rs rsc [238]. Disorder is expected to make the metal-insulator state
continuous. On the insulating side at T 0, the disordered Wigner crystal
is expected to be glassy and have low-energy properties of a Coulomb glass
[224]. On the metallic side uctuations in the local density of electrons might
be expected to lead to locally polarized magnetic states or possibly to some
unusual frustrated magnetic states [56]. The perturbative calculations with
disorder and interactions, already alluded to [9092,53] also hint at formation
of magnetic moments in the metallic state. It is the interplay of such magnetic
uctuations with itinerancy which is one of the principal theoretical problem
in understanding the metallic state.

125

8.2 Noninteracting Disordered Electrons: Scaling Theory of Localization

Detailed reviews on the material in this section may be found in [241,149]
[14,125].
The concept of localization of non-interacting electrons for strong enough disorder was invented in 1958 by Anderson [18]. In one dimension all electronic
states are localized for arbitrarily small disorder while in three dimension a
critical value of disorder is required. That two dimensions is the marginal
dimension in the problem was discovered through the scaling theory of localization.
The conceptual foundations for the scaling theory of localization were laid by
Thouless and co-workers [240,241] and by Abrahams et al. [1], and were developed formally by Wegner [270]. Abrahams et al. [1] also made predictions
which could be tested experimentally. Thouless noted rst of all that the conductance G of a hypercube of volume LD in any dimension d is dimensionless
when expressed in units of (e2 /h), thus dening a scale-independent quantity


g = G/ e2 /h .

(208)

Next, he argued that g for a box of linear size 2L may be obtained from the
properties of a box of size L and the connection between two of them. The
conductance of a box of size L itself increases with the transition amplitude t
between energy levels in the two boxes and decreases with the characteristic
width of the distribution of the energy levels in the boxes W (L) due to the
disorder,
g(L) f

t(L)
W (L)

(209)

For weak-Gaussian disorder, the bandwidth may be expected to be proportional to the square-root of the number of impurities in the box, so W (L)
Ld/2 . The transition amplitude t is obtained by the hopping between nearneighbors near the surface of the boxes of size L. It is therefore proportional
to the surface area Ld1 . Thus 37


g(L) = f L(d2)/2 .

(210)

Now, in three dimensions the conductivity should approach a constant for large
L (Ohms law!), and hence the conductance should scale as L. This implies
37

This line of reasoning of course breaks down when we include electron-electron

interactions

126

that the scaling function f (x) should go for large L as f (x) x2 . Note that
while for d > 2 the g therefore increases with increasing L while for d < 2 the
large L behavior is determined by the small argument behavior of the scaling
function, while d = 2 is the marginal dimension.
In a very inuential paper, Abrahams et al. [1] analyzed the -function of the
RG ow
(g) d(ln g)/d(ln L) ,

(211)

and showed by a perturbative calculation in 1/g that

(g) = (d 2)

1 1
,
2 g

(212)

where the rst part comes from Eq. (210) with f (x) x2 .
For small enough g (i.e. for large disorder) we expect exponential localization
g(L) eL/ , where is the localization length, so that (g) (L/). The
smooth connection between the perturbative result (212) for large g and the
exponentially localized solution at small g is shown in Fig. 64. While for d = 3
(or any d > 2), a critical disorder gc is required for localization, in d = 2 states
are asymptotically localized for any disorder for non-interacting fermions. The
characteristic value of the localization length in d = 2 is estimated from the
perturbative solution:
1
L
g(L) = go 2 ln

(213)

where go is the dimensionless conductance at L . In conventional Boltzmann transport theory go = (e2 /2

h)kF . is of the order of the value of L
at which the correction term is of order g0 , so that
exp

kF
2

(214)

At T 0, the sample size of a sample with kF 1 has to be very large

indeed for weak localization to be observable.
The theory described above must be modied at nite temperatures due to
inelastic scattering. If the inelastic scattering rate is much less than the elastic
1
scattering rate, in
1 , localization eects are cut o at a length scale
LT h (T ), the Thouless length scale:
LT h = (Din )1/2
127

(215)

Fig. 64. The scaling function for non-interacting electrons with disorder deduced by
Abrahams et al. [1].

where D = (vF2 /d) is the (Boltzmann) diusion constant. However as noted

by Altshuler, Aronov and Khmelnitski [12,13], the correct scale for the cut-o
is 1 , the phase breaking rate. In an individual collision the energy change E
may be such that the phase changes only by a very small amount, in E
2. The phase breaking time is then longer and is shown to be given by
(E in )2/3 in . The T = 0 theory with
L = (D )1/2

(216)

replacing L then gives the nite temperature scaling behavior to which experiments may be compared.
The characteristic temperature Tx at which weak-localization eects become
prominent may be estimated in a manner similar to (213),
Tx (Tx ) = exp (kF ) .

(217)

This expression puts useful bounds on the temperatures required to observe

weak localization.
Eq. (212) is derived microscopically by considering repeated backward scattering between impurities. It can also be derived by considering quantum
interference between dierent paths to go from one point A to another B [40].
128

Fig. 65. Interfering (time-reversed) parts in elastic scattering off a fixed set of impurities. The probability for the particle to arrive at B is reduced because of the
enhance probability for the particle to arrive back at A, as a result of interference.

The total probability for this process is

=



X 2


ai 




X
i

|ai |2 +

ai aj ,

(218)

i6=j

where ai is the amplitude of the i-th path. The second term in Eq. (218) is
non-zero only for classical trajectories which cross, for example at the point
O in Fig. 65. The probability of nding a particle at the point O is increased
from 2|ai |2 to
|a1 |2 + |a2 |2 + 2 Re a1 a2 = 4|a1 |2 ,

(219)

because the two paths are mutually time-reversed. Increasing this probability
of course leads to a decrease in the probability of the particle to arrive at B,
and hence to a decrease in the conductivity.
This argument makes clear why the interfering paths must be shorter than the
phase relaxation rate due to inelastic processes and why magnetic impurities
or a magnetic-eld which introduces phase-shift between two otherwise timereversed paths suppress weak-localization. In two-dimensions [14]
(H, T ) (O, T ) =

e2
1 1

+ ln x ,
+
2
2 h

2 x


(220)

where is the digamma function and

x = 4L2 eH/
hc (L /LH )2 .
129

(221)

The quantity in brackets in (220)is equal to x2 /24 for x 0 and to ln(x/4)

for x .
Spin-orbit scattering preserves time-reversal symmetry but spin is no longer
a good quantum number. The spins are rotated in opposite directions in the
two self-intersecting paths of Fig. (65) if the impurities are spin-orbit scatters
[14,149]. This has been shown to lead to an average overlap of the spin-function
of 21 (because a rotation by 2 of wave function of a spin 1/2 particle leads
to a wave function of opposite sign). The correction to the -function of Eq.
(212) due to this eect is
1 1
.
2 2 g

(222)

This eect tends to enhance the conductivity.

8.3 Interactions in Disordered Electrons

Fermi-liquid theory for interacting electrons survives in three dimensions in
the presence of a dilute concentration of impurities [42]. Some noteworthy
dierences from the pure case are:
(1) Because of the lack of momentum conservation, the concept of a Fermisurface in momentum space is lost but it is preserved in energy space, i.e.,
a discontinuity in particle occupation as a function of energy occurs at
the chemical potential. Momentum of particles may be dened after impurity averaging. General techniques for calculating impurity-averaged
quantities are well developed; see for example [4,42]. Here and subsequently in this chapter the self-energies, vertices etc. refer to their form
after impurity averaging.
(2) In the presence of impurities, the density-density correlation (and spindensity correlation, if spin is conserved) at low frequencies and small momentum must have a diusive form (This is required by particle-number
conservation and the continuity equation)
(q, ) =

Dq 2
,
i + Dq 2

q 1 and 1 .

(223)

Here = dn/d is the compressibility and D is the diusion constant.

For non-interacting electrons D = 31 vF2 . Interactions renormalize D and
[42]. In the diagrammatic representation used below, the diusive propagator is shown by a cross-hatched line connecting a particle and a hole
line as in Fig. 66.
130

(3) Because of statement 1, the impurity-averaged single-particle spectral

function at a xed k is spread out over an energy , so that for frequencies
within a range of the chemical potential, it has both a hole-part (for
< ) and a particle part (for > ). This is an important technical
point in microscopic calculations.
(4) The Ward-identities relating the coupling of vertices to external perturbations change for the coupling to unconserved quantities (For the pure
case they are given in section 2.6). For example no Ward-identity can
be derived for the vertex needed for the conductivity calculation, i.e.
Lim0 Limq0 impure
, because current is not conserved.

Limq0 Lim0 impure

=

k (k, )

m
k

(224)

holds because after impurity averaging momentum is conserved. But microscopic calculations show that at least when Fermi-Liquid theory is
valid (Cf. section 2.4)
Lim0 Limq0 impure
= Limq0 Lim0 impure
.

(225)

Indeed, if this were not so, one would not get a nite d.c. conductivity
at T = 0 for a disordered metal in d = 3. An argument for this is
as follows: Normally, we calculate the conductivity by rst taking the
limit q 0 and then the limit 0, as on the left side of (225). In
practice, however, even when we apply a homogeneous eld to a system,
the electrons in a disordered medium experience a eld which varies on
the scale of the distance between the impurities, and so the physically
relevant limit is the one on the right hand side of (225), where the limit
0 is taken rst. But the validity of (225) appears not to extend to
the case of Singular Fermi Liquids, at least for the present case where
the singularities are q-dependent. This is one of the important diculties
in developing a consistent theory for disordered interacting electrons in
d = 2.
The diusive form of the density correlation function and spin-density correlation is the genesis of the singularities due to interactions in two-dimensions.
For example the elementary eective vertex in Fig. 66 due to a bare frequencyindependent short-range interactions in two-dimensions is
v

1
Z
o

1
dq q
i + Dq 2

v 2 N(0) ln( ) .

(226)

The singularity arises because (, q) = f (/Dq 2). Recall that for pure electrons (, q) = f (/vF q) leading to a logarithmic singularity for the secondorder vertex in one-dimension and regular behavior in higher dimensions. Sim131

Fig. 66. Elementary processes important in the problem of two-dimensional disordered interacting electrons and referred to in the text. (a) Representation of the diffusion propagator due to impurity scattering vertices and corresponding self-energy.
The particle lines and hole lines should be on opposite sides of the chemical potential.
(b) Singular second-order interactions. (c) Singular vertex in the density channel
(and in the spin-density channel for the spin-conserving problem). (d) Singular (irreducible) first-order interactions. (e) Elementary singular polarization propagator.

ilarly (, q) = f (/q 3) leads to a logarithmic singularity in the second-order

vertex in three-dimensions, as we saw in section 5.1 on SFLs due to Gauge
interactions.
Note that in Eq. (226) and other singular integrals in the problem have ultraviolet cutos at q 1 and 1 since the diusive form is not applicable
at shorter length scales or time scales. It also follows that Boltzmann transport
theory is valid at temperatures larger than 1 .
Actually even the rst order interaction dressed by diusion uctuations is
singular. Consider rst the diusion correction to the vertex shown in Fig. 15
1
1 

i + Dq 2
,
=
o

(227)

provided < 0, > 0 or vice-versa. The restriction is a manifestation

of point (3) and arises because in the diusion process, only intermediate
132

Fig. 67. Effective interactions can be split up into singlet and triplet channels.
In the singlet-only channel (a), the density-density interaction is screened by the
Coulomb interaction and is universal at long wavelengths. In the triplet channel and
in the singlet channel for large momentum, the screened density-density interaction
appears only in the cross channel and is therefore non-universal.

states with one line above (particle) and the other below (hole) the chemical
potential contribute as they alone dene the physical density. This leads to
the rst order irreducible interaction and the polarization graph shown in Fig.
67 to be logarithmically singular.
For the small q of interest for singular properties, one need consider interactions only in the s-wave channel. One then has two interaction parameters,
one in the singlet channel and the other in the triplet channel.
Consider the problem with Coulomb interactions. Then the eective interaction in the singlet channel sums the polarization bubbles connected by
Coulomb interactions. Using (223) for the polarization bubble, it is shown [14]
that for small momentum transfer the interaction in the spin singlet (S = 0)
channel, Fig. 67, becomes
Vsinglet = 2 .

(228)

In the non-interacting limit = N(0), independent of density. Consider now

the ladder-type interactions illustrated in Fig. 68. These involve both the
singlet and the triplet interactions. The momentum carried by the interaction
lines is however to be integrated over. Therefore the triplet-interactions do not
have a universal behavior, unlike the singlet interactions.
Altshuler, Aronov and collaborators [14] calculated the logarithmic corrections to rst-order in the interactions for various physical quantities. To these
one can add the contribution already discussed due to weak-localization. The
corrections to the single-particle density of states, the specic heat and the
133

Fig. 68. Simplest processes contributing to the singular self-energy. (a) Exchange
process. (b) Hartree process.

conductivity over the non-interacting values are respectively:

1
N


 ,
=
ln | | ln |
|

N
4F
(Ds2 )2 


C
3
1
1 F ln |T | ,
=
C
F
2



3
1
2 F ln |T | .
=

4 2
2

(229)
(230)
(231)

The compressibility has no logarithmic correction. In these equations, s is the

screening length and F is a parameter which is of the order of the dimensionless
interaction rs .
The rst terms in (230) and (231) are due to exchange processes and the second
due to the Hartree processes. The exchange process, of which the contribution
to the self-energy is shown in Fig. 66, use the interaction in the singlet channel;
hence the universal coecient. The second contribution uses both triplet and
the (large q part of the) singlet interactions. In rst-order of interaction the
dierence in sign of the two processes is natural. In pure systems, the Hartree
process does not appear as it involves the q = 0 interaction alone which is
exactly canceled by the positive background. For disordered systems, due to
the uctuation in the (ground state) density, a rst order Hartree process, Fig.
68 contributes.
In the presence of a magnetic eld the Sz = 1 parts of the triplet interactions acquire a low-energy cut-o. Therefore the logarithmic correction to the
resistivity is suppressed leading to negative magneto-resistance proportion to
1
1
and s1 are
F (H/kT )2 for small H/kT but gB H >> so
, s1 where so
spin-orbit and spin-scattering rates respectively, for appropriate impurities.

134

8.4 Finkelstein Theory

Finkelstein [90] has used eld-theoretical methods to generalize Eqs. (229)(231) beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation. His results have been rederived
in customary diagrammatic theory [51,39]. The interference processes leading
to weak localization are again neglected. The theory may be regarded as rst
order in 1/kF . In eect the method consists in replacing the parameter F by
a scattering amplitude t for which scaling equations are derived. The equivalent of the Fos parameter is xed by imposing that the compressibility remains
unrenormalized, i.e., does not acquire logarithmic corrections. A second important quantity is a scaling variable z, which is analogous to the dynamical
scaling exponent z which we discussed in the section 6, which gives the relative scaling of temperature (or frequency) with respect to the length scale. A
very unusual feature of the theory is that z itself scales! Scaling equations are
derived for t and z to leading order 1/kF . As T 0, both t and z diverge.
The divergence in z (see the discussion in section 7) usually means that the
the momentum dependence of the uctuations is unimportant compared to
their frequency dependence. The divergence in t as T 0 in such a case has
been interpreted to imply divergent spatially localized magnetic-uctuations;
in other words, it implies the formation of local moments [91,53]. At the same
time, the scaling equations show conductivity owing to a nite value.
The scaling trajectories of Finkelsteins theory are shown schematically in
Fig. 69. While in the non-interacting theory with disorder, one always has an
insulator, this theory ows always towards a metal. However the theory cannot
be trusted beyond t 1 beyond which it is uncontrolled. The theory also
cannot be trusted for large disorder, kF O(1) , even for small interactions.
It is worth emphasizing that Finkelsteins theory gives an eect of the interactions in a direction opposite to the leading perturbative results. The perturbative results themselves of course are valid only for small rs while Finkelstein
theory is strictly valid only for rs < O(1). One possibility is that the Finkelstein result itself is a transient and the correct theory scales back towards an
insulator. Another possibility is that it correctly indicates (at least for some
range of rs and disorder) a strong-coupling singular Fermi-liquid metallic xed
line. The new experiments discussed below can be argued to point to the latter
direction.
It is hard except in very simple situations (the Kondo-problem, for instance) to
obtain the approach to a strong-coupling xed point analytically. In that case
one may usually guess the nature of the xed point and make an expansion
about it to ascertain its stability 38 .
38

Although the theory breaks down in the strong coupling regime, this situation is
somewhat comparable to the hints that the weak coupling expansion gave in the

135

Fig. 69. Schematic renormalization group flow for the disordered interacting electron
problem according to the Finkelstein theory. dashed lines represent the effect on the
solid lines on applying a magnetic- field which couples to spins alone.

In making such a guess, the SFL properties towards which the Finkelstein
solution ows should be kept in mind:
(i) The conductivity ows towards a nite value in the theory as T 0.
(ii) The density of single-particle states ows towards zero
N() .

(232)

(iii) The magnetic susceptibility diverges at a nite length scale (the eect of
a diverging z) indicating the formation of local moments.
The last point appears to be crucial. As may be seen from Eq. (239) below,
the growth of the triplet scattering overrides the exchange processes which
favor the insulating state. Indeed if the triplet divergence is suppressed by an
applied magnetic eld, the theory reverts to the perturbative form of Eq. (220).
The scale of the magnetic-eld for this eect is given by the temperature. The
early phase of the work on the Kondo problem: these weak coupling expansions
broke down at temperatures comparable to the Kondo temperature, but did hint at
the fact that the low temperature regime was a strong coupling regime.

136

formation of localized regions of moments may be linked to the fact already

discussed that the ferromagnetic state is close in energy to the paramagnetic
uid (and the crystalline states) as density is decreased. The experiments
discussed below have a signicant correspondence with this picture, although
there are some crucial dierences.
A possible strong coupling xed point is a state in which the local moments
form a singlet state with a nite spin stiness of energy of O(Hc ). This eliminates any perturbative instability of the triplet channel about the xed point.
The state is assumed to have zero density of single-particle states at the chemical potential. This eliminates the localization singularity as well as well as the
singularity due to the singlet channel. This state is then perturbatively stable.
The issue of whether such a state has nite conductivity is unresolved. The
occurrence of a new characteristic scale Hc observed in the magneto-resistance
experiments discussed below with Hc 0 as the metal-insulator transition in
zero eld as n nc is also in correspondence with these ideas.
8.5 Compressibility, Screening length and a Mechanism for Metal-Insulator
Transition

Suppose the metallic state in two dimensions is described by a xed point

hinted by the Finkelstein theory and expansion about it. Such a description
must break down near the critical rs where a rst order transition to the
Wigner transition must occur in the limit of zero disorder. General arguments
suggest that the transition for nite disorder must be continuous [124].
A suggestion for the breakdown of the Finkelstein regime follows from the
calculation of the correction to the compressibility due to disorder [226]. As
already mentioned, no perturbative singularity is found in the compressibility due to interactions. However, the correlation energy contribution of the
zero-point uctuations of plasmons is altered due to disorder with a magnitude which depends also on rs . The leading order contribution in powers
of (kF )1 can be calculated for arbitrary rs . Including this contribution the
compressibility may be written in the form


0
0
=
+ 0.11rs3 /(0 ) + O (rs4 )/(0 )2 .

pure

(233)

Here pure is the compressibility for zero disorder, 0 = N(0), and 0 is the
Rydberg. In the Hartree-Fock approximation

0
= 1 ( 2/)rs
pure
137

(234)

The best available numerical calculations also give 0 / varying slowly enough
with rs that the correction term (233) dominates for rs of interest near the
metal-insulator transition even for modest disorder; for example for 0 10,
the disorder contribution in Eq. (233) is larger than the pure contribution
for rs 10. This has an important bearing on the Metal-Insulator transition
because the screening length s is given by
s/s0 = 0 / ,

(235)

where s0 = a0 /2. Strictly speaking s is the screening length for an external immobile charge and the screening of the electron-electron interactions is
modied from (233) due to vertex renormalizations. But in this case they do
not change the essential results. From Eq. (233) it follows that the screening
length s() > , the mean-free path, for
rs 3(0 ) .

(236)

Suppose the condition s() > L > is satised. Here L again is the size of the
box for which the calculation is done, dened through DL2 T . The assumption of screened short-range interactions, with which perturbative corrections
leading to results of Eqs. (229), (230), and (231) are obtained, is no longer
valid. In this regime the calculations must be done with unscreened Coulomb
interactions. The correction proportional to F in Eqs. (229), (230), and (231)
is not modied but the singlet contributions are more singular (due to the
extra q 1 in the momentum integrals). For instance, Eq. (231) is modied to

L
/ = ( 2/ 2 )rs .

(237)

This implies a crossover to strong localization. It is therefore suggested that

the metallic state ceases to exist when condition (236) is satised.
The above line of reasoning is of particular interest because as discussed below
a sharp variation in the compressibility is indeed observed to accompany the
transition from the metallic-like to insulating-like state as density is decreased
(as shown in Fig. 79 below).

8.6 Experiments
Soon after the publication of the theory of weak localization its predictions
were seemingly veried in experiments on Si-MOSFETS [47,245]. The experiments measured resistivity on not very clean samples of high density with
138

Fig. 70. Resistivity data on a fine scale for the two highest densities in Fig. 75 below,
showing correspondence with the theory of weak localization at such high densities.
From Pudalov et al. [202].

resistivity of O(102h/e2 ). In a limited range of temperature the predicted logarithmic rise in resistivity with decreasing temperature with about the right
prefactor was found [40]. In view of the perturbative results of Altshuler and
Aronov [14] and the knowledge that electron-electron interactions alone lead
to a Wigner insulator at low densities, one was led to the conviction that the
metallic state does not exist in two dimensions. It was expected that samples will larger rs will simply show logarithmic corrections to the resistivity
at a higher temperature and pure samples at a lower temperature. Not too
much attention was paid to Finkelsteins results which pointed to the more
interesting possibility of corrections in the opposite direction.
The more recent experiments on a variety of samples on a wider range of density and of higher purity than earlier have re-focused attention on the problem
of disorder and interactions in two dimensions and, by implication, in three dimensions as well. Several reviews of the experiments are available [3,16,17]. We
will present only a few experimental data to highlight the theoretical problems
posed, and will focus on the behavior of the data as function of temperature.
The scaling of the data as a function of the electron density n nc or eld
E will not be discussed; there is a considerable body of data on nonlinear
E-dependence (see e.g. [223] and references therein) but the signicance of
the data is not clear at present.
The rst thing to note is that results consistent with the earlier data [47,245]
are indeed obtained for high enough densities. Fig. 70 shows the resistance
versus temperature in Si for rs O(1). The magnitude of the temperature
dependence is consistent with the predictions of weak localization corrections.
As we will show below in the same region of densities, the negative magnetoresistance predicted as correction to weak-localization, discussed above, is also
139

10

10

(h/e )

10

10

10
2

(h/e )

10

ns=8.6 ... 11.0x10 cm

1

10
1

0.5

10

1.5

T (K)

10

10

10

ns=7.12x10 cm ....... 13.7x10 cm

10

T (K)
Fig. 71. Resisitivity as a function of temperature for a wide range of densities (and
Fermi-energy) in a disordered Si MOSFET. The inset shows accurate measurements
of (T ) close to the speparatrix for another sample. From Sarachik and Kravchenko
[211,3].

observed.
Fig. 71 shows the resistivity as a function of T over a wide range of densities.
Similar data from [142] over a large small of densities is shown in Fig. 72,
and data over a large range of densities are plotted as a function of T /EF
in Fig. 73. The resistivity clearly shows a change of sign in the curvature as
a function of density at low temperatures. The resistivity at the cross-over
density as a function of temperature is shown down to 20mK in the inset to
Fig. 72 and is consistent with temperature independence. The true electron
temperature in these samples is a question of some controversy [16,3], but more
recent experiments, whose data are shown in Fig. 74, have corroborated these
results by studying this issue very carefully down to 5mK. In the high density
region the resistivity does rise with decreasing temperature logarithmically,
consistent with earlier measurements. The consistency of these data sets for
two very dierent types of samples therefore gives strong evidence that these
are genuine eects in both types of systems.
The data shown in Figs. 71-73 is for Si-MOSFET samples. The data for
140

Fig. 72. Resistivity versus temperature at five different electron densities in the
experiments of Kravchenko and Klapwijk [142]. The inset shows that the middle
curve (ns = 7.25 1010 cm2 ) changes by less than 5% in the entire temperature
range.

GaAs heterostructures, and Si in other geometries is qualitatively similar

[115,61,62,196,114,172]. Fig. 74 shows data on high quality gated GaAs quantum wells with densities on the metallic side of the metal-insulator transition
taken to temperatures as low as 5mK. The resistivity is essentially temperature independent at low temperatures; the logarithmic corrections expected
from weak-localization (calculated using the measured resistivity and the theoretically expected ) is also shown.
Experiments in a Parallel Magnetic Field: A magnetic eld applied parallel
to the plane couples primarily to the spin of the electrons. For small-elds
and for n nc , a positive magneto-resistance proportional to H 2 is observed
as expected from perturbative calculations in the interactions. For elds such
that B H EF , the electrons are fully polarized and the resistivity saturates as expected. The temperature dependence of the resistivity begins to be
insulating-like at low temperatures with the cross-over temperature increasing as n decreases [228]. This is an indication that the metallic state becomes
unstable as the spins are polarized. A complete set of data is shown in Fig. 75
where resistivity versus temperature in a Si-MOSFET with density varying
across nc is shown together with the resistivity versus magnetic-eld at the
lowest temperature for some densities on the n > nc side. It is noteworthy
that the temperature dependence of the high-eld data (not shown) appears
to fall on the curve of resistivity versus temperature (at H=0) which the high
141

Fig. 73. Plot of the resistivity as a function of the scaled temperature T /EF . The
encircled region indicates the range of parameters explored in Fig. 72 and in [142].
The dash-dotted vertical line depicts the empirical temperature TQ = 0.007EF
below which the logarithmic temperature dependence like that of Fig. 70 sets in.
From Prinz et al. [200].

eld (low temperature) data saturates asymptotically.

The parallel magneto-resistance has been examined carefully for n close to but
larger than nc , and is shown in Figs. 76 for p-type GaAs [279]. Qualitatively
similar results are found in n-type Si [203]. It is discovered that a critical eld
as a function of density Hc (n) exists such that for H < Hc (n) the resistivity
continues to be metallic-like d/dT > 0 and for H > Hc (n) it is insulating like
d/dT < 0. The eld Hc (n) tends to zero as n nc . The low temperature
data on the high elds side is puzzling and should be re-examined to ensure
that the electron-temperature is indeed the indicated temperature.
Experiments in a Perpendicular Field: The behavior of a resistance in all
but very small perpendicular elds, is dominated by the Quantum Hall Eect
(QHE). The connection of the Quantum Hall transitions to the metal-insulator
transition at n = nc and H = 0 is an interesting question which we will not
touch on. At low elds and for n nc , outside the QHE regime, negative
magneto-resistance predicted by weak-localization theory are observed. Data
142

Fig. 74. (a) Temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistivity of a 2D hole

gas for various gate biases and associated densities in experiments on GaAs. The
solid curves are estimated weak localization predictions. (b)-(f ): Magnified view of
the data in (a) averaged over a 5% temperature interval. The estimated weak localization prediction has been shifted to coincide with the data curve at T = 50mK.
From Mills et al. [172]

for n nc is shown in Fig. 77 and agrees quite well with the theoretical
curves as shown; similar results for n close to nc are also reported [114]. More
recent low temperature data in GaAs heterostructures[172] is reproduced in
Fig. 78 for densities n > nc but close to nc . A magnetoresistance two orders
of magnitude smaller than the weak localization theory is estimated although
the width of the negative magneto-resistance region is not in disaccord with
the weak-localization correction.
Compressibility measurements Compressibility () measurements [79,122] in
the region around n = nc show a rapid change in 1 from the negative value
characteristic of high rs metallic state to positive values see Fig. 79. These
are very important measurements which show that a thermodynamic quantity
has a very rapid variation near n nc . We have already discussed that such
changes were predicted [226] to occur through perturbative corrections due
to disorder to the energy of interacting electrons. Some more recent measurements [276] of the local electrostatic potential show that in the region n nc
143

Fig. 75. Results for resistivity versus temperature and versus magnetic field applied
in the plane for a few densities on either side of nc . The magnetic field is shown
on the upper axis and the data is taken at the lowest temperature for some of the
densities shown in the resistivity versus temperature plots. From Pudalov et al.
[201].

large scale density uctuations (puddles) occur with very weak connections
between them. Completely isolated puddles evidently have 1 = 0.
8.7 Discussion of the Experiments in light of the theory of Interacting Disordered Electrons
In comparing the experimental results with the theory, it is necessary to separate out the eects due to customary-physics for instance electron-phonon
interactions, creation of ionized impurities with temperature [15], change of
screening from its quantum to its classical form as a function of temperature
[72] change of single particle wavefunctions with a magnetic elds [137], intervalley scattering [277], etc. from the singular eects due to impurities and
interactions. The separation is at present a matter of some debate. However
it seems that the following features of the experimental data in relation to the
theoretical ideas summarized in sections 8.3, 8.4 are especially noteworthy.
144

Fig. 76. Plot of the magnetoresistance. In (a) the T dependence of in the zero
field metallic phase is shown on a semilog plot for a hole density 3.7 1010 cm2 for
varying B|| values. As B|| increases from zero, the strength of the metallic behavior
measured by the total change in from about 1K to 50mK weakens progressively,
and for B|| Bc d/dT becomes negative (i.e. the system becomes insulating).
An alternate way of demonstrating the existence of a well defined B||c is to plot
against B|| at several different temperatures. In (b) is plotted vs B|| at a hole
density 1.5 1010 cm2 . B||c is read off the crossing point marked by the arrow. In
(c), the differential resistivity dV /dI is measured at 50mK across the B|| induced
Metal-Insulator transition is shown at magnetic field strengths similar to those in
(a). From Yoon et al. [279].

145

Fig. 77. Plot of the magnetoresistance. The change in the resistivity

(B) = xx (B) xx (0) vs magnetic field B at an electron density of 1.05
1012 cm2 at various temperatures. The open circles denote the measurements and
the full line is the best least square fit according to the single electron weak localization correction to the conductivity. From Brunthaler et al. [48].

Fig. 78. Variation of the longitudinal resistance with perpendicular magnetic field
for 2D sample at T = 9mK and at various indicated densities. The weak-localization
correction is estimated to be O(102 ) larger than the observations at these densities.
From Mills et al. [172].

146

Fig. 79. Compressibility data. In this experiment, at low frequencies, Ix is directly

proportional to Rx , the dissipation of the two dimensional hole system, while Iy
is proportional to the inverse compressibility. Ix and Iy are shown as a function
of density for five different temperatures ranging from 0.33 K to 1.28 K at an
excitation frequency of 100Hz. The crossing point of the five dissipation channel
curves corresponds to the metal-insulator transition at B = 0. The minimum of
the inverse compressibility occurs at the same hole density of 5.5 1010 cm2 . From
Dultz et al. [79].

These must be read bearing in mind our earlier discussion that most of the
interesting experiments are in a range of rs and disorder where the theoretical
problems are unresolved and only hints about the correct form of a theory are
available.
At rs O(1) and kF 1 a logarithmic increase in resistance with decreasing T consistent with weak-localization as well as with the perturbative interaction correction is observed. A positive magneto-resistance consistent with
the latter is also observed. Also observed is the correction to weak-localization
due to phase-breaking of backscattering in a perpendicular magnetic eld. The
latter yields sensible values and temperature dependence for the phase relaxation rate given by the theory. It appears that at high enough density, the weak
localization theory supplemented by the perturbative theory of interactions is
in excellent agreement with the experiments in the range of temperatures
examined.
As rs is increased (and kF decreased) the logarithmic resistance is lost in the
observed temperature range, whereas weak-localization theory predicts that
the coecient of such terms (as well as the onset temperature for their occurrence) should increase. For rs not too large the decreased logarithmic term
147

may be associated with the perturbative corrections (220) due to interactions.

Upon further increasing rs , the derivative d/dT becomes positive in the low
temperature region as in a metal. The magneto-resistance in a parallel eld is
positive H 2 as is predicted by Finkelstein [although the variation is closer
to H 2 /T rather than as (H/T )2 ] [203]. The phase breaking correction in a
perpendicular eld continues to be observed. But quite curiously the deduced
is larger than deduced from resistivity by denition a phase-breaking
rate serves as a cuto only if < .
In the metallic regime for intermediate rs , a strongly temperature dependent contribution for T EF is found which may be tted to the form
(n) exp(Ea (n)/T ). The magnitude of this term rapidly decreases as the
density n decreases. No accepted explanation for this contribution has been
given. In Si the change of resistivity at n 10nc due to this contribution
is an order of magnitude larger than in GaAs. It has been proposed [14,201]
that this contribution together with the weak-localization contribution may
well account for all the data in the metallic regime since it pushes the minimum of the resistivity below which the logarithmic temperature dependence
is visible to lower temperature than the available data at lower densities.
This issue can be resolved by experiments at lower temperatures. At this point,
especially in view of the consistency of the recent results of Mills et al. see
Figs. 74 and 78 with the earlier experiments, one can say that it requires an
unlikely conspirancy of contributions to remove the temperature dependence
over a wide range for dierent materials and with dierent degrees of disorder.
A quite dierent scenario also consistent with the existing data is that the
logarithmic upturn in the resistivity observed in high density samples is a
transient that on further decreasing the temperature disappears to be replaced
d
by dT
0 as T 0, at least above some characterestic density which is a
function of diorder. We will come back to this issue when we discuss the
possible phase-diagram.
As rs approaches rsc , d/dT tends to zero (through positive values). A
separatrix is observed with d/dT 0 over about 2 orders of magnitude in
temperature for Si and over an order of magnitude in GaAs. For rs > rsc ,
d/dT is negative betting an insulator. rsc appears to be smaller for dirtier
samples but not enough systematic data is available for drawing a functional
relation.
The electronic compressibility rapidly changes near the transition and
rapidly becomes small on the insulating side. Its value on the insulating side
is consistent with approaching zero in the limit of zero temperature. Although
this is in qualitative accord with the theoretical suggestion [226], further experiments measuring simultaneously the compressibility and the conductivity
148

at low temperatures are necessary to correlate the metal-insulator transition

with the rapid variation of compressibility or the screening length. Note that
it follows from the Einstein relation = D that if is nite in the metallic
state ( nite) and zero in the insulating state ( = 0), must go to zero at
the transition. Otherwise we would have the absurd conclusion that D
at the transition.
Interesting phenomenological connections between the transport properties
and formation of puddles of electron density of decreasing size as the metalinsulator transition is approached have been drawn [166].
Near rs = rsc the resistivity as a function of temperature on the insulating
side appears to be a reection of that on the metallic side about the d/dT = 0
line if the data is not considered to low temperatures [141]. Now with more
complete data, we know that the resistivity attens to zero slope at low temperatures on the metallic side of nc . The most likely behavior appears to
be that the resistivity approaches a nite value at low temperature on one
side of nc and an innite value on the other. A one-parameter scaling ansatz
[75] for the problem with interaction and disorder gave for n < nc
and 0 for n > nc as T 0 and reection symmetry just as at any
second-order transition with one scaling parameter 39 . Does this necessarily
imply that multi-dimensional scaling is required near this transition? But another important point to bear in mind is that since resistance does not depend
on a length scale in two-dimensions, it need not be a function, in particular,
of the correlation length near the transition. The resistivity is allowed to be
nite on one side of a metal-insulator transition and innite on the other even
though the transition may be continuous and the correlation length diverges
on either side with the same exponent. The glassy nature (Coulomb glass) of
the insulating state is also expected to change the critical properties.
The resisitivity at low temperatures for n nc has been tted to an activated form exp(/T ) with 1/2 and with 0 as n nc . This is
characteristic of a Coulomb glass [224]. Whether this is indeed the asymptotic
low temperature form is not completely settled.
The resistance at n nc appears to vary from sample to sample but is
within a factor of 3 of the quantum of resistance. It is worth emphasizing that
nc is close to the density expected for Wigner crystallization. With Coulomb
interactions and disorder, the insulating state is indeed expected to be Wigner
glass. In that case one might expect singular frequency dependent properties
and hysteretic behavior near the transition.
For rs rsc the resistance in a parallel-eld is especially noteworthy. In
39

The data also led to suggestions for a superconducting ground state on the metallic side [193], and to an anyonic state [286]!

149

a parallel eld d/dT decreases untill at a eld H = Hc (n) it changes sign.

Hc vanishes at nc , the density where d/dT = 0 for Hk = 0. In this regime,
(H, T, n) can be scaled as [279]
(n nc ) (H Hc (n nc ))

,
T
T

(238)

This means that the transition from the metallic state to the insulating state
can be driven by a magnetic eld. It appears that the metallic state owes
its existence to low-energy magnetic uctuations which are quenched by a
magnetic eld. This is in line with Finkelstein theory and the ow diagram of
Fig. 69 yet the existence of a scale Hc is not anticipated by the calculations
of Finkelstein (nor, of course, is the mere existence of nc ). As Hk is further
increased d/dT approaches the insulating behavior characteristic of n > nc
at Hk = 0. At a xed temperature the resistivity saturates for gB Hk EF ,
i.e. for a fully polarized band.
For small perpendicular elds, negative magneto-resistance of the form of (220)
continues to be observed at least for Si for n nc . In GaAs this contribution
at least in the range nc n 2nc is negligible.
The Hall coecient RH is continuous across the transition, obeying the
kinetic theory result RH 1/n. On the metallic side this is not surprising.
On the insulating side this is reminiscent of the properties of Wigner glasses
[60,105]

8.8 Phase Diagram and Concluding Remarks

It is worthwhile to try to guess the T = 0 phase-diagram of interacting disordered electrons on the basis of the data and the available theory, inadequate
though it is. A convenient set of axes is rs (or n1/2 ), as it parameterizes the
dimensionless interaction, and the resistance in units of h/e2 as it parametrizes
the dimensionless disorder, see Fig. 80.
Reliable theoretical results are found only along the two axes of Fig. 80. States
are localized all along the horizontal axis. Localized states at T = 0 must be
organized into one or another kind of magnetically ordered state. On the
vertical axis a Fermi-liquid gives way via a rst order transition to a Wigner
crystal which may have various magnetic phases.
In light of the experiments, the assumption made too long that the entire region in Fig. 80 is an insulator has to be abandoned in all likelihood. There does
appear to be a metallic state. With disorder a crossover to a Wigner glass
150

rs

Metal
Insulator
Impurity density
Fig. 80. A tentative phase diagram at T = 0 for two-dimensional disordered electrons
with interactions.

must occur at large rs . It is also clear that at high densities weak-localization

theory supplemented by perturbative corrections due to interactions works
quite well in the range of temperatures examined. At moderate rs for small
disorder the Finkelstein correction appears to take over and a metallic state
takes over. The best evidence for this, paradoxically, is the magnetic led (parallel to the plane) dependence of the resistivity which appears to eliminate the
metallic state.
Based on these considerations, the phase diagram Fig. 80 is put forth. It is
surmised that the weak localization correction ows to strong localization for
suciently strong disorder and small enough rs , but that it gives way to a
metallic state at weak-disorder and larger rs . What determines the boundary?
A possible criterion is that on one side the Finkelstein renormalization is more
important and on the other side localization due to disorder is more important.
The cross-over to strong localization occurs at a length scale given by Eq.
(214) where the resistivity doubles.
The scaling equation for the triplet interaction parameter is [90,50,149]
dt /d ln L = kF (1 + 2t )2 ,

(239)

so that for small initial value to at L = one gets t (L) = to +(kF ) ln(L/).
As L = , t to + 1. The boundary between the metallic and the insulating regions on this basis is linear at small rs and small g 1, as shown in
Fig. 80. This is highly conjectural but the existence of the phase boundary at
the point rs 0 and 1/g 0 is more robust.
This scenario can be tested in high density, low disorder samples by mea151

surements of resistivity at very low temperatures. If correct in some regime

of parameters near the boundary, the logarithmic weak-localization correction
should appear at high temperatures and disappear at lower temperatures.
We have stressed that the metallic state in 2-dimensions is likely to be a
Singular Fermi-liquid with an interesting magnetic-ground state. Direct or
indirect measurements of the magnetic susceptibility through, for instance
the magnetic eld dependence of the compressibility should yield very interesting results. Also interesting would be measurements of the single-particle
density of states through tunneling measurements. Further systematic and
careful measurements of the compressibility are also required to correlate the
transition from the metallic state to the increase in susceptibility.
The basic theoretical and experimental problem remains the characterization
of the metallic state its low temperature entropy,magnetic susceptibility,
single-particle density of states etc. The experimental and theoretical problems
are many but one hopes not insurmountable.

Acknowledgements

This article is an outgrowth of lectures delivered in spring 2000 by C. M.

Varma during his tenure as Lorentz Professor at the Universiteit Leiden. He
wishes to thank the faculty and sta of the Physics department and the deep
interest shown by the attendees of the lectures.
Special thanks are due to numerous colleagues who provided the experimental
data and who explained their ideas and claried countless issues.
ZN also wishes to take this opportunity to greatly thank his former mentor,
S. A. Kivelson, for coaching in one-dimensional physics.
Finally, ZN and WvS also wish to express their thanks to Debabrata Panja,
Michael Patra, Kees Storm and especially Carlo Beenakker from the InstituutLorentz for all their help in generating, scanning, and compressing the numerous gures.

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