Two different quasiparticle scattering rates in vortex line liquid phase of layered d-wave superconductors

Abstract

We carry out a quantum mechanical analysis of the behavior of nodal quasiparticles in the vortex line liquid phase of planar d-wave superconductors. Applying a novel path integral technique we calculate a number of experimentally relevant observables and demonstrate that in the low-field regime the quasiparticle scattering rates deduced from photoemission and thermal transport data can be markedly different from that extracted from tunneling, specific heat, superfluid stiffness or spin-lattice relaxation time.