Spin-charge separation in the t-J model: Magnetic and transport anomalies

A real spin-charge separation scheme is found based on a saddle-point state of the t-J model. In the one-dimensional (1D) case, such a saddle-point reproduces the correct asymptotic correlations at the strong-coupling fixed point of the model. In the two-dimensional (2D) case, the transverse gauge field confining spinon and holon is shown to be gapped at finite doping so that a spin-charge deconfinement is obtained for its first time in 2D. The gap in the gauge fluctuation disappears at half-filling limit, where a long-range antiferromagnetic order is recovered at zero temperature and spinons become confined. The most interesting features of spin dynamics and transport are exhibited at finite doping where exotic residual couplings between spin and charge degrees of freedom lead to systematic anomalies with regard to a Fermi-liquid system. In spin dynamics, a commensurate antiferromagnetic fluctuation with a small, doping-dependent energy scale is found, which is characterized in momentum space by a Gaussian peak at (π/a,π/a) with a doping-dependent width (∝ √δ , δ is the doping concentration). This commensurate magnetic fluctuation contributes a non-Korringa behavior for the NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate. There also exists a characteristic temperature scale below thich a pseudogap behavior appears in the spin dynamics. Furthermore, an incommensurate magnetic fluctuation is also obtained at a finite energy regime. In the transport, a strong-range phase intereference leads to an effective holon Lagrangian which can give rise to a series of interesting phenomena including linear-T resistivity and a T² Hall angle. We discuss the striking similarities of these theoretical features with those found in the high-T_c cuprates and give a consistent picture for the latter. Electronic properties like Fermi surface and superconducting pairing in this framework are also discussed.