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Three dimensional quantum electrodynamics and cuprate superconductivity

University of British Columbia

The ubiquitous phase diagram of the cuprate superconductors has a phase where the density of states still has a gap above the superconducting transition temperature. Due to the presence of a gap without any other superconducting characteristics, this phase is known as the pseudogap (PG) state. Emery and Kivelson proposed that in this state the superconducting order parameter still has a finite amplitude, however the quantal phase is disordered in such a way that it does not possess long range order. Using these ideas, Franz and Tesanovic developed a theory to explain the pseudogap phase that is identical to three dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED3 ) apart from an intrinsic anisotropy. Amazingly, this theory can easily explain the antiferromagnetic region. The main purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, to explore some finite temperature properties of QED3 . We do this by calculating a Bosonic polarization bubble at finite temperature in the Matsubara formalism. Secondly we wish to derive some experimentally testable predictions of QED3 . To this end we calculate the modification to the Patrick Lee universal conductivity in the pseudogap state.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-08-20

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12440

Physics

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace