BREAKDOWN OF THE FERMI-LIQUID DUE TO LONG-RANGE INTERACTIONS

Fermions interacting via a long-range repulsive potential are considered in D spatial dimensions, where 1 < D less-than-or-equal-to 2. The standard screening picture is found to break down, i.e., the screened effective interaction cannot be treated as instantaneous. For a bare potential which behaves at long distances as r-(2-D) [as ln r in two dimensions (2D)] and within the random-phase approximation, the retardation effects induce an infrared catastrophe that changes the Fermi liquid into a Luttinger liquid in which the occupation number in momentum space is continuous across the Fermi surface. In 2D, the quantum liquid which we investigate may be called a ''Z = 0 Fermi liquid'' (where Z is the strength of the quasiparticle pole at the Fermi surface) since the electron propagator has an isolated pole with a constant residue that scales to zero as the size of the system increases to infinity. For 1 < D < 2, the quantum liquid resembles the 1D Luttinger liquid as the single-particle propagator exhibits a branch cut structure. Moreover, we present a ground-state wave function which reproduces the Luttinger-liquid exponent of the momentum distribution near the Fermi surface.