Skewed non-Fermi liquids and the Seebeck effect

Abstract

We consider non-Fermi liquids in which the inelastic scattering rate has an intrinsic particle-hole asymmetry and obeys ω/T scaling. We show that, in contrast to Fermi liquids, this asymmetry influences the low-temperature behavior of the thermopower even when the impurity scattering dominates. Implications for the unconventional sign and temperature dependence of the thermopower in cuprates in the strange metal (Planckian) regime are emphasized.