Paper detail

Consequences of current conservation in systems with partial magnetic order

We discuss the consequences of spin current conservation in systems with SU(2) spin symmetry that is spontaneously broken by partial magnetic order, using a momentum-space approach. The long-distance interaction is mediated by Goldstone magnons, whose interaction is expressed in terms of the electron Green's functions. There is also a Higgs mode, whose excitation energy can be calculated. The case of fast magnons obeying linear dispersion relation in three spatial dimensions admits nonperturbative treatment using the Gribov equation, and the solution exhibits singular behaviour which has an interpretation as a tower of spin-1 electronic excitations. This occurs near the Mott insulator state. The electrons are more free in the case of slow magnons, where the perturbative corrections are less singular at the thresholds. We then turn our attention to the problem of high-Tc superconductivity, through the discussion of the stability of the antiferromagnetic ground state in two spatial dimensions. We argue that this is caused by an effective mixing of the Goldstone and Higgs modes, which in turn is caused by an effective Goldstone-boson condensation. The instability of the antiferromagnetic system is analyzed by studying the non-perturbative behaviour of the Higgs boson self-energy using the Dyson-Schwinger equations.