Collective excitations and stability of a non-Fermi liquid state near a quantum-critical point of a metal

Abstract

We examine the spectral properties of collective excitations with finite angular momentum $l$ for a system of interacting fermions near a Pomeranchuk quantum critical point, both in the Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid regimes. Previous studies found that deep in the Fermi liquid regime, the spectral functions for even and odd $l$ behave differently - the latter is suppressed compared to the former because of kinematic constraints on scattering processes. The main focus of our paper is to understand how the spectral functions for even and odd $l$ evolve as the system enters the non-Fermi liquid regime. We obtain the full scaling function for the electron polarization bubble at arbitrary $l$, which interpolates between the Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid regimes. We show that collective excitations for all $l$ remain stable and causal throughout the crossover and right at the quantum critical point.