PHENOMENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COPPER OXIDES AS ALMOST LOCALIZED FERMI LIQUIDS

We demonstrate that a variety of normal-state properties of the cuprates are similar to what is observed in heavy-fermion metals, provided that the temperature or frequency are rescaled. This leads to a characteristic energy scale Tcoh 150 K and suggests that the non-Fermi-liquid-like behavior of the cuprates is related to the high-temperature breakup of coherence of a Fermi-liquid ground state. We propose a concrete physical picture for future theories and give predictions which can be tested. © 1990 The American Physical Society.