Florida State University
Title: A Toy Model for the Pseudogap Phase in Cuprate Superconductors
Abstract: In this talk I discuss a simple model we introduced [1] that have a number of features qualitatively similar to the phenomenology of Cuprate superconductors, especially the existence of a pseudogap region in the phase diagram. In this model Cooper pairing is induced by an attractive interaction with a finite range. While returning to the usual BCS limit when the range of the pairing interaction L is shorter than the mean-field coherence length x, the physics becomes qualitatively different from that of BCS when L is much larger than x. In this regime the system supports a new class of low-energy collective modes absent in the BCS theory, whose fluctuations greatly depress the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) from its mean-field level, and lead to pseudogap behavior above Tc. These fluctuations are not the usual phase fluctuations of the standard superconducting order parameter, and lead to a highly unusual Ginzburg-Landau description in which the center of mass and relative degrees of freedom of the order parameter must be included on equal footing. I will discuss how such a long-range pairing interaction may arise in Cuprate superconductors, especially in the underdoped regime.
[1] Kun Yang and S. L. Sondhi, Phys. Rev. B 62, 11778 (2000).