Effective theory of the hidden-order pseudogap phase in a doped antiferromagnet

Abstract

The microscopic origin of the pseudogap phase constitutes a longstanding puzzle related to the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprate materials. In this work, we develop an effective model for doped antiferromagnets in terms of fluctuating stripes, or string-like domain walls, which obscure the antiferromagnetic order of the spin background. The open ends of such domain walls of the N'eel order are treated as vortices in the resulting lattice gauge theory. We numerically evaluate the phase diagram by classical Monte Carlo simulations, using percolation-based geometric order parameters to diagnose hidden N'eel order. At high temperatures, we identify a BKT-type crossover in which the domain wall ends become deconfined. We interpret this as the $T^*$ crossover from the hidden order regime to the paramagnetic metal above. At low temperatures, we identify stripe instabilities. Predictions of our effective model can be tested in ultracold fermion quantum simulators.