Quantum disordered phase in a doped antiferromagnet

A quantitative description of the transition to a quantum disordered phase in a doped antiferromagnet is obtained for the long-wavelength limit of the spin-fermion model, which is given by the O(3) non-linear σ model, a free fermionic part and current-current interactions. By choosing local spin quantization axes for the fermionic spinor we show that the low-energy limit of the model is equivalent to a U(1) gauge theory, where both the bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom are minimally coupled to a vector gauge field. Within a large-N expansion, the strength of the gauge fields is found to be determined by the gap in the spin-wave spectrum, which is dynamically generated. The explicit doping dependence of the spin-gap is determined as a function of the parameters of the original model. As a consequence of the above, the gauge-fields mediate a long-range interaction among dopant holes and S-1/2 magnetic excitations only in the quantum disordered phase. The possible bound-states in this regime correspond to charge-spin separation and pairing