Field Theory of Mottness

111 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.We show that many of the normal state properties of the cuprates can result from this new charge 2e bosonic field. In particular, the (1) mid-infrared band including the nonvanishing of the restricted f-sum rule in the Mott insulator, (2) the T2 contribution to the thermal conductivity, (3) pseudogap, (4) bifurcation of the electron spectrum below the chemical potential, as recently seen in angle-resolved photoemission, (5) insulating behavior away from half-filling, (6) high- and low-energy kinks in the electron dispersion, and (7) T-linear resistivity all derive from the charge 2e bosonic field. We also calculate the inverse dielectric function and show that it possesses a sharp quasiparticle peak and a broad particle-hole continuum. The sharp peak is mediated by a new charge e composite excitation formed from the binding of a charge 2e boson and a hole and represents a distinctly new prediction of this theory. It is this feature that is responsible for the dynamical part of the spectral weight transferred across the Mott gap. We propose that electron-energy loss spectroscopy at finite momentum and frequency can be used to probe the existence of such a sharp feature.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD