FL* Interpretation of a Dichotomy in the Spin Susceptibility of the Cuprates

Abstract

We propose that some dichotomic Fermi liquid versus non-Fermi liquid behaviours of physical quantities in hole-doped cuprates can be explained in terms of the FL* fractionalized Fermi liquid concept, introduced some years ago, even beyond the region of underdoping. The particle excitations of this FL* system are the holon carrying charge, the spinon carrying spin 1/2, gauge fluctuations coupling them and the hole as a spinon–holon bound state or resonance due to gauge binding. In our proposal, physical responses have a Fermi-liquid-type behaviour if they are dominated by the hole resonance, whereas a non-Fermi liquid behaviour appears if they are dominated by spinon–spinon (and possibly also holon–holon) gauge interactions. The specific case of spin susceptibility in the so-called "strange metal phase" is discussed. The uniform susceptibility turns out to be hole-dominated, the spin-lattice relaxation rate in the Cu sites is spinon-dominated.