We present the expression for the quasiparticle vertex function ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ (proportional to the Landau interaction function) in a 2D Fermi liquid (FL) near an instability towards antiferromagnetism. This function is relevant in many ways in the context of metallic quantum criticality. Previous studies have found that near a quantum critical point, the system enters into a regime in which the fermionic self-energy is large near hot spots on the Fermi surface [points on the Fermi surface connected by the antiferromagnetic ordering vector $q_{\pi }=(\pi ,\pi )$] and has much stronger dependence on frequency than on momentum. We show that in this regime, which we termed a critical FL, the conventional random-phase-approximation- (RPA) type approach breaks down, and to properly calculate the vertex function one has to sum up an infinite series of terms which were explicitly excluded in the conventional treatment. Besides, we show that, to properly describe the spin component of ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ even in an ordinary FL, one has to add Aslamazov-Larkin (AL) terms to the RPA vertex. We show that the total ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ is larger in a critical FL than in an ordinary FL, roughly by an extra power of magnetic correlation length $\xi$, which diverges at the quantum critical point. However, the enhancement of ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ is highly nonuniform: It holds only when, for one of the two momentum variables, the distance from a hot spot along the Fermi surface is much larger than for the other one. This fact renders our case different from quantum criticality at small momentum, where the enhancement of ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ was found to be homogeneous. We show that the charge and spin components of the total vertex function satisfy the universal relations following from the Ward identities related to the conservation of the particle number and the total spin. We show that in a critical FL, the Ward identity involves ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ taken between particles on the FS. We find that the charge and spin components of ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ are identical to leading order in the magnetic correlation length. We use our results for ${\Gamma }^{\omega }(K_F,P_F)$ and for the quasiparticle residue to derive the Landau parameters $F_c^{l=0}=F_s^{l=0}$, the density of states, and the uniform ($q=0$) charge and spin susceptibilities ${\chi }_c^{l=0}={\chi }_s^{l=0}$. We show that the density of states $N_F$ diverges as $log\xi$; however, $F_{c,s}^{l=0}$ also diverge as $log\xi$, such that the total ${\chi }_{c,s}^{(l=0)}\propto N_F/(1+F_c^{l=0})$ remain finite at $\xi =\infty$. We show that at weak coupling these susceptibilities are parametrically smaller than for free fermions.

• Received 20 September 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.045108