A stability bound on the T-linear resistivity of conventional metals with Chaitanya Murthy (Stanford)

A stability bound on the T-linear resistivity of conventional metals

Perturbative considerations account for the properties of conventional metals, including the range of temperatures T where the transport scattering rate is 1/τ_tr = 2πλT, where λ is a dimensionless strength of the electron-phonon coupling. The fact that measured values satisfy λ <~ 1 has been noted in the context of a possible "Planckian" bound on transport. However, since the electron-phonon scattering is quasi-elastic in this regime, no such Planckian considerations can be relevant. I will argue, based on Monte Carlo results on the Holstein model, that a different sort of bound is at play: a "stability" bound on λ consistent with metallic transport. I will then speculate that a qualitatively similar bound on the strength of residual interactions, which is often stronger than Planckian, may apply to metals more generally.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.06966