Critical behavior at the pseudomagnetic phase transition in disordered Fermi liquids

Abstract

The phase transition between a Fermi liquid and a pseudomagnetic phase, which has recently been predicted to occur in disordered electron systems, is considered. We determine the exact asymptotic critical behavior at the transition, establish the connection between the integral-equation approach used earlier and a renormalization-group analysis, and determine the qualitative phase diagram. The critical behavior is found to be governed in part by log-log normal terms rather than by power laws. However, the critical region is extremely small, and on realistic scales transport and thermodynamic quantities obey preasymptotic, nonuniversal power laws. We present an extensive discussion of the properties of the renormalization group for this model, and of the physical and experimental implications of our results.