Transport Properties in the "Strange Metal Phase" of High Tc Cuprates: Spin-Charge Gauge Theory Versus Experiments

Abstract

The SU(2)xU(1) Chern-Simons spin-charge gauge approach developed earlier to describe the transport properties of the cuprate superconductors in the ``pseudogap'' regime, in particular, the metal-insulator crossover of the in-plane resistivity, is generalized to the ``strange metal'' phase at higher temperature/doping. The short-range antiferromagnetic order and the gauge field fluctuations, which were the key ingredients in the theory for the pseudogap phase, also play an important role in the present case. The main difference between these two phases is caused by the existence of an underlying statistical $\pi$-flux lattice for charge carriers in the former case, whereas the background flux is absent in the latter case. The Fermi surface then changes from small ``arcs'' in the pseudogap to a rather large closed line in the strange metal phase. As a consequence the celebrated linear in T dependence of the in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity is shown explicitly to recover. The doping concentration and temperature dependence of theoretically calculated in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity, spin-relaxation rate and AC conductivity are compared with experimental data, showing good agreement.