Abstract
Numerous experiments have reported discrete symmetry breaking in the high-temperature pseudogap phase of the hole-doped cuprates, including breaking of one or more of lattice rotation, inversion, and time-reversal symmetries. In the absence of translational symmetry breaking or topological order, these conventional order parameters cannot explain the gap in the charged fermion excitation spectrum in the antinodal region. Zhao et al. [L. Zhao, D. H. Torchinsky, H. Chu, V. Ivanov, R. Lifshitz, R. Flint, T. Qi, G. Cao, and D. Hsieh, Nat. Phys. 12, 32 (2016)] and Jeong et al. [J. Jeong, Y. Sidis, A. Louat, V. Brouet, and P. Bourges, Nat. Commun. 8, 15119 (2017)] have also reported inversion and time-reversal symmetry breaking in insulating similar to that in the metallic cuprates, but coexisting with Néel order. We extend an earlier theory of topological order in insulators and metals, in which the topological order combines naturally with the breaking of these conventional discrete symmetries. We find translationally invariant states with topological order coexisting with both Ising-nematic order and spontaneous charge currents. The link between the discrete broken symmetries and the topological-order-induced pseudogap explains why the broken symmetries do not survive in the confining phases without a pseudogap at large doping. Our theory also connects to the O(3) nonlinear sigma model and descriptions of quantum fluctuations of the Néel order. In this framework, the optimal doping criticality of the cuprates is primarily associated with the loss of topological order.
- Received 6 March 2017
- Revised 2 May 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.205133
©2017 American Physical Society