Quantum-critical transport of marginal Fermi-liquids (2207.11982v2)

Abstract: We present exact results for the electrical and thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient at low temperatures and frequencies in the quantum-critical region for fermions on a lattice scattering with the collective fluctuations of the quantum xy model. This is done by the asymptotically exact solution of the vertex equation in the Kubo formula for these transport properties. The model is applicable to the fluctuations of the loop-current order in cuprates as well as to a class of quasi-two dimensional heavy-fermion and other metallic antiferromagnets, and proposed recently also for the possible loop-current order in Moir\'{e} twisted bi-layer graphene and bi-layer WSe$_2$. All these metals have a linear in temperature electrical resistivity in the quantum-critical region of their phase diagrams, often termed "Planckian" resistivity. The solution of the integral equation for the vertex in the Kubo equation for transport shows that all vertex renormalizations except due to Aslamazov-Larkin processes are absent. The latter appear as an Umklapp scattering matrix, which is shown to give only a temperature independent multiplicative factor for electrical resistivity which is non-zero in the pure limit only if the Fermi-surface is large enough, but do not affect thermal conductivity. We also show that the mass renormalization which gives a logarithmic enhancement of the marginal Fermi-liquid specific heat does not appear in the electrical resistivity as well as in the thermal conductivity. On the other hand the mass renormalization appears in the Seebeck coefficient. The results for transport properties are derived for any Fermi-surface on any lattice. As an example, the linear in $T$ electrical resistivity is explicitly calculated for large enough circular Fermi-surfaces on a square lattice. We also discuss in detail the conservation laws that play a crucial role in all transport properties.