Renormalization group analysis of quantum critical points in d-wave superconductors

Abstract

We describe a search for renormalization group fixed points which control a second-order quantum phase transition between a d_{x^2-y^2} superconductor and some other superconducting ground state. Only a few candidate fixed points are found. In the finite temperature quantum-critical region of some of these fixed points, the fermion quasiparticle lifetime is very short and the spectral function has an energy width of order k_B T near the Fermi points. Under the same conditions, the thermal conductivity is infinite in the scaling limit. We thus provide simple, explicit, examples of quantum theories in two dimensions for which a purely fermionic quasiparticle description of transport is badly violated.