GAUGE-THEORY OF THE NORMAL STATE OF HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTORS

Starting with the one-band t-J model and using the slave-boson method to enforce the constraint of no double occupations, we examine fluctuations about the uniform resonating-valence-bond mean-field solution. We restrict our attention to a temperature region where the bosons are not Bose condensed. The important low-energy fluctuations are described by gauge fields that are related to fluctuations in the spin chirality. The fermions and bosons are strongly coupled to the gauge field, leading to a transport time of order hBAR/k(B)T, in agreement with experiment. The model also exhibits a Fermi surface with area 1 - x, where x is the dopant concentration, consistent with the Luttinger Theorem, but the low-lying excitations have a decay width much larger than its energy, in violation of Landau's criterion for a Fermi-liquid state. Other experimental implications of this model and the possibility of a direct measurement of the chirality fluctuations are discussed.