Evidence that the pseudogap (PG) in a near-optimally doped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ sample destroys the BCS logarithmic pairing instability [1] raises again the question of the role of the PG in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates
[2]. The elimination of the BCS instability is consistent with the view that the PG competes with superconductivity. However, as noted in [1], the onset of superconductivity with a $T_c sim 90$ K suggests an alternative scenario in which the PG reflects the formation of short range pairing correlations. Here, we report results obtained from a dynamic cluster quantum Monte Carlo approximation (DCA) for a 2D Hubbard model and conclude that (1) the PG, like the superconductivity, arises due to short-range antiferromagnetic correlations and (2) contrary to the usual case in which the pairing instability arises from the Cooper instability, here, the strength of the spin-fluctuations increases as the temperature decreases leading to the pairing instability.
Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies of the overdoped cuprate superconductor La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ find only small changes in the near nodal electron self energy over a spectral range of several hundred meV as the doping increa
ses from x=0.2 to x=0.3 and the superconducting transition temperature T_c decreases from 32K to 0K. These measurements put constraints on the structure of the electron-electron interaction. Here we show that a spin-fluctuation interaction leads to behavior which is consistent with these experimental results.
Recent experiments on the alkali-intercalated iron selenides have raised questions about the symmetry of the superconducting phase. Random phase approximation calculations of the leading pairing eigenstate for a tight- binding 5-orbital Hubbard-Hund
model of AFe2Se2 find that a d-wave (B1g) state evolves into an extended s{pm} (A1g) state as the system is hole-doped. However, over a range of doping these two states are nearly degenerate. Here, we calculate the imaginary part of the magnetic spin susceptibility chi(q,{omega}) for these gaps and discuss how the evolution of neutron scattering resonances can distinguish between them.
Inelastic neutron scattering provides a probe for studying the spin and momentum structure of the superconducting gap. Here, using a two-orbital model for the Fe-pnicitide superconductors and an RPA-BCS approximation for the dynamic spin susceptibili
ty, we explore the scattering response for various gaps that have been proposed.
We study current-current correlations in the three-band Hubbard model for two-leg CuO ladders using the density-matrix renormalization group method. We find that these correlations decrease exponentially with distance for low doping but as a power la
w for higher doping. Their pattern is compatible with the circulating current (CC) phase which Varma has proposed to explain the pseudo-gaped metallic phase in underdoped high-temperature superconductors. However, for model parameters leading to a realistic ground state in the undoped ladder, the current fluctuations decay faster than the d-wave-like pairing correlations in the doped state. Thus we conclude that no phase with CC order or dominant CC fluctuations occur in the three-band model of two-leg CuO ladders.
The question of whether one should speak of a pairing glue in the Hubbard and t-J models is basically a question about the dynamics of the pairing interaction. If the dynamics of the pairing interaction arises from virtual states, whose energies corr
espond to the Mott gap, and give rise to the exchange coupling J, the interaction is instantaneous on the relative time scales of interest. In this case, while one might speak of an instantaneous glue, this interaction differs from the traditional picture of a retarded pairing interaction. However, if the energies correspond to the spectrum seen in the dynamic spin susceptibility, then the interaction is retarded and one speaks of a spin-fluctuation glue which mediates the d-wave pairing. Here we present results from numerical studies which provide insight into this question.
Scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS) measurements find that the surface of Bi-2212 is characterized by nanoscale sized regions, gap patches, which have different magnitudes for the d-wave energy gap. Recent studies have shown that the tunnelling co
nductance can be fit using a BCS-type density of states for a d-wave superconductor with a local quasiparticle scattering rate. The fit is made with a scattering rate which varies linearly with energy and has a slope that is positively correlated with the local value of the gap. We revisit a model of quasiparticle scattering by impurities and spin fluctuations which was previously used to describe the lifetimes of nodal quasiparticles measured by angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). We argue that the broadening of the local density of states is in general determined by the imaginary part of the self-energy of the system averaged over a small region. The size of this region is set by a mean free path which depends upon the energy. At low energies, this region is found to be significantly larger than a gap patch, so that the density of states measured by STS is homogeneous in this energy range. At higher energies where the mean free path is comparable with the patch size, the density of states is inhomogeneous. We show that a local self-energy in the impurity-plus-spin fluctuation model, while not strictly linear, yields a local density of states (LDOS) nearly identical to the full theory, and argue that it is consistent with the STS data as well as the phenomenological linear scattering rate extracted from experiment. We also explore the qualitative consequences of this phenomenology for the spectral widths observed in ARPES and predict the existence of Fermi arcs in the superconducting state.
