True vs false Fermi surfaces in the Pseudogap regime and their transformation with doping and temperature in the Hubbard Model

Abstract: Exact diagrammatic quantum Monte Carlo (DiagMC) results for the nearest-neighbor Hubbard model motivate a closer study of the pseudogap. Using the improved two-particle self-consistent approach (TPSC+), we analyze Energy (EDC) and Momentum Distribution Curves (MDC) simultaneously. We show that Fermi-liquid terminology breaks down in the pseudogap regime, requiring a distinction between true and false Fermi surfaces and zero-energy quasiparticle (ZEQ) lines. A false Fermi surface has a momentum-space spectral maximum but a frequency-space depression at zero energy, while a false ZEQ line violates the standard quasiparticle condition $\partial Σ&#39;(\mathbf{k},ω)/\partial ω|<em>{ω=0}&lt;0$.The pseudogap is driven by critical thermal spin fluctuations, which occur in two dimensions because of the Mermin-Wagner theorem. Commensurate fluctuations first open an antinodal pseudogap, leaving true Fermi arcs. With decreasing temperature, the Fermi surface evolves into hole- and electron-like false Fermi surfaces. Incommensurate fluctuations generate hot spots near the diagonal, where the pseudogap persists to the quantum critical point (QCP), whereas at $\mathbf{k}</em>{AN}$ it disappears before the QCP doping. There, the spectrum has two precursor antiferromagnetic (AFM) bands, both in the unoccupied ($ω&gt;0$) region. We benchmark TPSC+ against DiagMC results for the Matsubara spectral proxy $-\mathrm{Im}[\mathcal{G}(\mathbf{k},iπT)]/π$. TPSC+ underestimates pseudogap suppression in the strong-interaction regime, reproducing DiagMC behavior at lower temperatures or doping. This proxy is equivalent to the spectral function with thermal broadening $η=πT$, which obscures features when $πT$ is not the smallest energy scale. Using $A(\mathbf{k},0)$, we find that hole-like Fermi surfaces emerge at any interaction strength at low temperature, even at weak coupling.