Dissipation-driven strange metal behavior

Fermi-liquid theory has been used to successfully describe the behaviour of metals for decades but there are a number of instances where expected behaviour is violated, such as for high-temperature superconductors. Here, the authors identify parameters which could be responsible for the strange metal behaviour and establish how this affects resistivity and specific heat measurements. Anomalous metallic properties are often observed in the proximity of quantum critical points, with violation of the Fermi Liquid paradigm. We propose a scenario where, near the quantum critical point, dynamical fluctuations of the order parameter with finite correlation length mediate a nearly isotropic scattering among the quasiparticles over the entire Fermi surface. This scattering produces a strange metallic behavior, which is extended to the lowest temperatures by an increase of the damping of the fluctuations. We phenomenologically identify one single parameter ruling this increasing damping when the temperature decreases, accounting for both the linear-in-temperature resistivity and the seemingly divergent specific heat observed, e.g., in high-temperature superconducting cuprates and some heavy-fermion metals.

Automated summary

Fermi-liquid theory has been successful in describing the behavior of metals, but there are cases, like high-temperature superconductors, where it fails. The authors identify parameters that could be responsible for this strange behavior and explore how it impacts resistivity and specific heat measurements.