The issues of single particle coherence and its interplay with singlet pairing are studied within the slave boson gauge theory of a doped Mott insulator. Prior work by one of us [T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. B 78, 045109 (2008)] showed that the coherence scale below which Landau quasiparticles emerge is parametrically lower than that identified in the slave boson mean field theory. Here we study the resulting new non-Fermi liquid intermediate temperature regime characterized by a single particle scattering rate that is linear in temperature ($T$). In the presence of a $d$-wave pair amplitude, this leads to a pseudogap state with $T$-dependent Fermi arcs near the nodal direction. Implications for understanding the cuprates are discussed.

• Received 29 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.076402