Charge carrier drop at the onset of pseudogap behavior in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

Abstract

We show that antiferromagnetic spin-density wave order in the two-dimensional Hubbard model yields a drop of the charge carrier density as observed in recent transport measurements for cuprate superconductors in high magnetic fields on entering the pseudogap regime. The amplitude and the (generally incommensurate) wave vector of the spin-density wave is obtained from dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). An extrapolation of the finite temperature results to zero temperature yields an approximately linear doping dependence of the magnetic gap Δ(p) p∗-p in a broad doping range below the critical doping p∗. The magnetic order leads to a Fermi surface reconstruction with electron and hole pockets, where electron pockets exist only in a restricted doping range below p∗. The dc charge transport properties are computed by combining the renormalized band structure as obtained from the DMFT with a doping-independent phenomenological scattering rate. A pronounced drop of the longitudinal conductivity and the Hall number in a narrow doping range below p∗ is obtained.