We present a microscopic theory of resonant soft-x-ray scattering that accounts for the delocalized character of valence electrons. Unlike past approaches based on local form factors, our functional determinant method treats realistic band structures. This method builds upon earlier theoretical work in mesoscopic physics and accounts for excitonic effects as well as the orthogonality catastrophe arising from interaction between the core hole and the valence band electrons. We show that the two-peak structure observed near the O $K$ edge of stripe-ordered ${\mathrm{La}}_{1.875}{\mathrm{Ba}}_{0.125}{\mathrm{CuO}}_4$ is due to dynamical nesting within the canonical cuprate band structure. Our results provide evidence for reasonably well-defined, high-energy quasiparticles in cuprates and establish resonant soft-x-ray scattering as a bulk-sensitive probe of the electron quasiparticles.

• Received 14 September 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.137002