The "Strange Metal" is a Projected Fermi Liquid with Edge Singularities

Abstract

The puzzling "strange metal" phase of the high Tc cuprate phase diagram reveals itself as closer to a Fermi liquid than previously supposed: it is a consequence of Gutzwiller projection and does not necessarily require exotica such as an RVB or mysterious quantum critical points. There is a Fermi liquid-like excitation spectrum but the excitations are asymmetric between electrons and holes, show anomalous forward scattering and have Z equal to 0. We explain the power law dependence of conductivity on frequency and predict anomalies in the tunneling and photoemission spectra.