Pseudogap metal induced by long-range Coulomb interactions

Abstract

In correlated electron systems the metallic character of a material can be strongly suppressed near an integer concentration of conduction electrons as Coulomb interactions forbid the double occupancy of local atomic orbitals. While the Mott-Hubbard physics arising from such on-site interactions has been largely studied, several unexplained phenomena observed in correlated materials challenge this description and call for the development of new ideas. Here we explore a general route for obtaining correlated behavior that is decidedly different from the spin-related Mott-Hubbard mechanism and instead relies on the presence of unscreened, long-range Coulomb interactions. We find a pseudogap metal phase characterized by a divergent quasiparticle mass and the opening of a Coulomb pseudogap in the electronic spectrum. The destruction of the Fermi-liquid state occurs because the electrons move in a nearly frozen, disordered charge background, as collective charge rearrangements are drastically slowed down by the frustrating nature of long-range potentials on discrete lattices. The present pseudogap metal realizes an early conjecture by Efros, that a soft Coulomb gap should appear for quantum lattice electrons with strong unscreened interactions due to self-generated randomness.