Staggered flux fluctuations and the quasiparticle scattering rate in the SU(2) gauge theory of the t-J model

Abstract

We study staggered flux fluctuations around the superconducting state of the SU(2) meanfield theory for the two-dimensional t-J-model and their effect on the electron spectral function. The quasiparticle peaks near the saddlepoints get strongly broadened and partially wiped out by these fluctuations while the quasiparticle peaks near the nodes of the d-wave gap are preserved over a wide parameter range. The strength of these effects is governed by an energy scale that decreases towards zero doping and that is related to the energy splitting between the SU(2)-related superconducting and staggered flux meanfield states.