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# Translational Symmetry Breaking in the Superconducting State of the Cuprates: Analysis of the Quasiparticle Density of States

## I Introduction

Puzzling properties of the high-$`T_c`$ cuprates have often been attributed to the existence of competing instabilities, and proximity (or even coexistence) of several ordered states. Possible instabilities that have been discussed in this context include charge density wave (CDW) order, non-two-sublattice spin density wave (SDW) order , spin Peierls order , and orbital magnetism . Neutron scattering experiments on $`\mathrm{La}_{1.6x}\mathrm{Nd}_{0.4}\mathrm{Sr}_x\mathrm{CuO}_4`$ , $`\mathrm{La}_x\mathrm{Sr}_{1x}\mathrm{CuO}_4`$ , and $`\mathrm{La}_2\mathrm{CuO}_{4+x}`$  demonstrated the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity, while recent experiments on strongly underdoped $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$  have seen evidence of CDW order coexisting with superconductivity. Particularly striking in this context are recent STM experiments on $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$  which see spatial structure in the tunneling density of states with a period of four lattice constants. This structure was originally observed in the experiments in a magnetic field by J.E. Hoffman et al. , and later also seen in zero field by C. Howald et al. . Modulo certain experimental subtleties, these experiments can be thought of as measurements of the spatial Fourier component (at the ordering wavevector $`𝐐`$) of the energy dependent local density of states (LDOS) $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$.

In this paper, we demonstrate that the energy dependence of $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ provides important information about the nature of charge ordering in these materials. It allows us to separate simple charge density wave order, that has only the Hartree-Fock potential modulation, from the more unusual charge orders that involve modulation of the electron kinetic energy (dimerization) or the pairing amplitude (anomalous dimerization). For example, when $`𝐐=(2\pi /4,0)`$ (as observed in slightly overdoped $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ ), there is a change of sign in $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ for energies around 40 meV when dimerizations are present, but not in the case of a simple CDW. When several of the simple distortions are present simultaneously, we can understand the resulting $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ as (roughly) a superposition of the corresponding simple cases, since the induced $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ is approximately linear in the order parameter for small distortions. Such a superposition is necessary to understand the experiments of .

This superposition principle also applies when we have potential modulation at several wavevectors, and $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ can be analyzed separately for each wavevector $`𝐪`$. This is necessary, for example, when we have randomness that pins the charge order, so that the single particle potential is not a delta function in momentum space but has a narrow distribution centered at the ordering wavevector $`𝐐`$. This leads to a finite $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ for a range of wavevectors around $`𝐐`$ and, as we discuss below, taking a reasonable value of the CDW correlation length reproduces well the “weak dispersion” of the CDW peak observed in . Our analysis can be extended to systems with no charge order but, instead, with localized defects, e.g. impurities. In this case we have a potential that is essentially momentum independent and we find strongly dispersing peaks in $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ for a wide range of wavevectors. Such peaks have been observed in the STM experiments in  and discussed theoretically in . We provide a qualitative comparison of the STM spectra for systems with disordered CDW and impurity scattering.

It is common to discuss spin density wave (SDW) order as the primary competitor to superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates . An order parameter for non-two-sublattice magnetism is

$`\stackrel{}{S}(𝐫)=\stackrel{}{\varphi }e^{i𝐐_s𝐫}+\stackrel{}{\varphi }^{}e^{i𝐐_s𝐫},`$ (1)
where the complex-valued vector $`\stackrel{}{\varphi }`$ acquires an expectation value in a state with broken spin symmetry. When the SDW order in (1) is collinear, it has an associated spin singlet order parameter that only breaks translational symmetry and can be described as a generalized charge density wave

$`\delta \rho (𝐫)=\phi e^{i𝐐_c𝐫}+\phi ^{}e^{i𝐐_c𝐫}.`$ (2)
Symmetry arguments determine the wavevector $`𝐐_c=2𝐐_s`$ of such generalized CDW, but they do not clarify its internal structure. For example, modulation of the local Hartree-Fock potential of the electrons and modulation of the electron kinetic energy (hopping) are both spin singlet order parameters that can be defined at the same wavevector and described by (2). Modulation of the electron pairing amplitude also belongs to the same class of translational symmetry breaking since, in the superconducting state with condensed Cooper pairs, order parameters with charge two and zero are not orthogonal. It is important to note, however, that a long range SDW order is not a prerequisite for translational symmetry breaking. One can have a situation where quantum or thermal fluctuations destroy the spin order but preserve a long range order in the charge sector . This was observed, for example, in underdoped $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$ , where neutron scattering found period eight CDW but no static spin order. For slightly overdoped $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$, on which most of the tunneling experiments have been performed, neutron scattering experiments suggest dynamic spin fluctuations . In our analysis we then assume that there is no SDW order and concentrate on the effects of spin singlet translational symmetry breaking. Another possible origin of a generalized CDW with no spin symmetry breaking comes from pinning of SDW by disorder  or vortices .

We restrict our analysis to the case of weak translational symmetry breaking, when the new order parameter can be treated as a small perturbation to the superconducting mean-field Hamiltonian. This limit clearly applies to the experimental situation in , where the measured modulation is weak, and allows us to obtain explicit approximate expressions for $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$. \[This circumvents solving a complicated set of equations numerically, as for instance carried out in .\] Furthermore, we do not address the issue of the origin of charge order, but introduce it phenomenologically and study its consequences for the STM experiments. Our basic motivation is that a comparison of the energy dependence of $`\rho _𝐐`$ with experimental data can, in principle, be used to identify the correct order parameter(s) which, in turn, is crucial for understanding their origin.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section II we introduce mean-field Hamiltonians that describe several kinds of translational symmetry breaking in a lattice system. For these generalized CDWs we derive an explicit formula for the Fourier component of the tunneling density of states at the ordering wavevector. Section III displays numerical results of this expression in the case of $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ type band structure and period four charge order. We show that recent STM experiments by  are consistent with a generalized CDW that has modulation of either the electron hopping or the pairing amplitude. We also consider period eight structure that may be relevant to $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$. In Section IV we extend our analysis to phases with randomness and show that a realistic value of the CDW correlation length ($`20a_0`$, with $`a_0`$ the unit cell size) provides good agreement with the “weak dispersion” of the CDW peak observed in . As a different application of our formalism we also consider localized perturbations in the crystal, such as impurity potentials, and demonstrate that these can account for the strongly dispersing peaks observed in  at wavevectors not corresponding to the CDW order. In Section V we review how to include a more realistic model of the atomic wavefunctions, whose main effect is to introduce a momentum dependent structure factor. An important implication of this result is that the signal at wavevectors differing only by a reciprocal lattice vector should have peaks at the same energies, although their amplitudes may differ. We also discuss complications in the analysis of the STM data introduced by the normalization procedure used in the experiments. Finally, in Section VI we discuss several sum rules for the Fourier components of the density of states that may be useful for analyzing experiments.

## II Order parameters and Mean-Field Hamiltonians for generalized charge density wave phases

Our starting point is a two dimensional one-band mean-field Hamiltonian that is commonly believed to be a good model for the physics of the $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconducting state of the cuprates:

$`={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}ϵ_𝐤c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤(c_𝐤^{}c_𝐤^{}+c_𝐤c_𝐤)`$ (3)
Here $`ϵ_𝐤=2t(\mathrm{cos}(k_x)+\mathrm{cos}(k_y))4t_1\mathrm{cos}(k_x)\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\mu `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_0}{2}(\mathrm{cos}k_x\mathrm{cos}k_y)`$ (from now on the unit cell size is set to unity), $`c_{𝐫\sigma }=N^{1/2}_𝐤c_{𝐤\sigma }e^{i\mathrm{𝐤𝐫}}`$, and $`N`$ is the number of sites in the lattice. The Hamiltonian (3) can be diagonalized using the Bogoliubov transformation $`c_k=u_k\gamma _k+v_k\gamma _k^{}`$, $`c_k=u_k\gamma _kv_k\gamma _k^{}`$ with $`u_k^2+v_k^2=1`$, $`u_kv_k=\mathrm{\Delta }_k/2E_k`$, and $`E_k=(ϵ_k^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_k^2)^{1/2}`$.

Weak charge order may be introduced into the state (3) by assuming the appearance of one or more of the additional order parameters listed below. We note that distinction between site and bond centered orders discussed below is only defined for CDW with integer periods.
Site-centered charge density wave. The local Hartree-Fock potential is modulated along $`x`$ with potential extrema on the lattice sites (see Fig. 1a):
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_1=V_0_{\sigma ,𝐤}\left(c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }\right)`$
Bond-centered charge density wave. The local Hartree-Fock potential is modulated along $`x`$ with the extrema of the modulation at midpoints of the horizontal bonds (see Fig. 1b):
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_2=V_0_{\sigma ,𝐤}\left(\alpha ^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+\alpha c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }\right)`$, where $`\alpha =e^{iQ/2}`$.
Longitudinal dimerization. Single electron tunneling amplitudes are modulated on the horizontal bonds and the wavevector of modulation is along the same direction (i.e. along $`x`$). The bond centered version, in which the extrema of the modulation lie on the bonds (see Fig. 1c) corresponds to: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3=V_0_{\sigma ,𝐤}\mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})\left(\alpha ^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+\alpha c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }\right)`$.
Transverse dimerization. Single electron hopping is modulated on the vertical bonds, and the wavevector of modulation is along the horizontal direction (i.e. along $`x`$). The site centered version (i.e. with extrema of the modulation realized on the vertical bonds) is shown in Fig. 1d, and corresponds to:
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_4=V_0_{𝐤\sigma }\mathrm{cos}k_y\left(c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }\right)`$.
Anomalous longitudinal dimerization. The $`x`$-components of the $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave pairing amplitudes are modulated in the $`x`$ direction. The bond centered version, shown in Fig. 1c, corresponds to: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_5=V_0_{\sigma ,𝐤}\{\mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})(\alpha ^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐}^{}c_𝐤^{}+\alpha c_𝐤^{}c_{𝐤𝐐}^{})+h.c.\}`$.
Anomalous transverse dimerization. The $`y`$-components of the $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave pairing amplitudes are modulated in the $`x`$ direction. The site centered version, shown in Fig. 1d, corresponds to: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_6=V_0_{\sigma ,𝐤}\{\mathrm{cos}k_y(c_{𝐤+𝐐}^{}c_𝐤^{}+c_𝐤^{}c_{𝐤𝐐}^{})+h.c.\}`$.

Note that these subdominant order parameters may appear either as a result of a phase transition in the bulk, or due to pinning by vortices, impurities or any other defects (see discussion in Section IV). Following experimental observations in , we assume that the order is unidirectional, and choose the ordering wavevector to be $`𝐐=Q\widehat{e}_x`$ . However, even if we were to assume checkerboard order, our analysis is carried out to linear order in perturbation theory and, by linear superposition, our results would be identical to those obtained for unidirectional order. For the STM experiments in $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ , $`Q=2\pi /4`$, while the neutron scattering experiments on $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$  correspond to the smaller value: $`Q=2\pi /8`$. We point out that the six cases listed above are, in general, not orthogonal to each other in a symmetry sense. As a result it is conceivable that more than one order parameter could be simultaneously non-zero; for example, in a microscopic model without particle-hole symmetry, a simple CDW would be expected to induce dimerization as the two order parameters are linearly coupled .

Upon expressing the Hamiltonians $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the basis of Bogoliubov quasiparticles, they reduce to the generic form

$`\mathrm{\Delta }_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k\sigma }{}}\left[A_k^i\gamma _{𝐤\sigma }^{}\gamma _{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }+A_𝐤^i\gamma _{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }^{}\gamma _{𝐤\sigma }\right]`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}[B_k^i\gamma _𝐤^{}\gamma _{𝐤+𝐐}^{}+B_𝐤^i\gamma _{𝐤+𝐐}^{}\gamma _𝐤^{}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.],`$ (5)
where

$`\begin{array}{cc}A_𝐤^1=V_0\omega _𝐤& B_𝐤^1=V_0\eta _𝐤\hfill \\ A_𝐤^2=V_0\alpha \omega _𝐤& B_𝐤^2=V_0\alpha \eta _𝐤\hfill \\ A_𝐤^3=V_0\alpha \mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})\omega _𝐤& B_𝐤^3=V_0\alpha \mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})\eta _𝐤\hfill \\ A_𝐤^4=V_0\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\omega _𝐤& B_𝐤^4=V_0\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\eta _𝐤\hfill \\ A_𝐤^5=V_0\alpha \mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})\eta _𝐤& B_𝐤^5=V_0\alpha \mathrm{cos}(k_x+\frac{Q}{2})\omega _𝐤\hfill \\ A_𝐤^6=V_0\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\eta _𝐤& B_𝐤^6=V_0\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\omega _𝐤\hfill \end{array}`$ (12)
in terms of the coherence factors $`\omega _𝐤=u_{𝐤+𝐐}u_𝐤v_{𝐤+𝐐}v_𝐤`$ and $`\eta _𝐤=u_{𝐤+𝐐}v_𝐤+v_{𝐤+𝐐}u_𝐤`$.

STM experiments measure the local density of states $`\rho (𝐫,ϵ)=_{n\sigma }\{|n|c_{𝐫\sigma }^{}|0|^2\delta (ϵϵ_{n0})+`$ $`|n|c_{𝐫\sigma }|0|^2\delta (ϵ+ϵ_{n0})\}`$, where the summation over $`n`$ ranges over all excited states. In particular, we are interested in the Fourier transform

$`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫}{}}e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}\rho (𝐫,ϵ)`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{n𝐤\sigma }{}}[0|c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma }|nn|c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}|0\delta (ϵϵ_{n0})`$ (14)
$`+0|c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}|nn|c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma }|0\delta (ϵ+ϵ_{n0})].`$ (15)
Although a full treatment of all terms in (5) is complicated, progress can be made if we assume that the ordering represented by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is weak, allowing us to obtain an analytic expression for the Fourier transform that is exact to linear order in $`V_0`$. This is then the sum of two contributions

$`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)=\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}(ϵ)+\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{B}(ϵ)+O(V_0^2),`$ (16)
where $`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}(ϵ)`$ is obtained by ignoring the $`B_𝐤`$ term in the perturbation (5) and vice versa.

A small value of $`V_0`$ leads to another important simplification: We only need to consider the pairwise mixing between states connected by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. For instance, in computing $`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}(ϵ)`$ for $`Q=2\pi /4`$ one would have to analyze coupled equations for four quasiparticles ($`𝐤`$, $`𝐤+𝐐`$, $`𝐤+2𝐐`$, and $`𝐤+3𝐐=𝐤𝐐`$) connected by the perturbation. However, in the limit when $`V_0`$ is small, there is at most one pair of quasiparticles that have similar energies, and that will be hybridized appreciably by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This hybridization can be analyzed by diagonalizing the corresponding two-by-two Hamiltonian, which gives the new eigenstates $`|\alpha _{𝐤\sigma }`$ and $`|\beta _{𝐤\sigma }`$ with energies $`\stackrel{~}{E}_{𝐤\pm }=\frac{E_𝐤+E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2}\pm \left[(\frac{E_𝐤E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2})^2+|A_𝐤|^2\right]^{1/2}`$. Note that these states satisfy $`0|c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }|\alpha _{𝐤\sigma }\alpha _{𝐤\sigma }|c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}|0=\frac{1}{2}u_𝐤u_{𝐤+𝐐}\mathrm{sin}2\theta _𝐤e^{i\chi _𝐤}`$, $`0|c_{𝐤+𝐐\sigma }|\beta _{𝐤\sigma }\beta _{𝐤\sigma }|c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}|0=\frac{1}{2}u_𝐤u_{𝐤+𝐐}\mathrm{sin}2\theta _𝐤e^{i\chi _𝐤}`$, where we have defined $`A_𝐤=|A_𝐤|e^{i\chi _𝐤}`$, and $`\mathrm{tan}2\theta _𝐤=2|A_𝐤|/(E_𝐤E_{𝐤+𝐐})`$. From these results one easily finds

$`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{A_𝐤^{}}{\sqrt{\left(\frac{E_𝐤E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2}\right)^2+|A_𝐤|^2}}}`$ (17)
$`\times `$ $`[u_𝐤u_{𝐤+𝐐}(\delta (ϵ\stackrel{~}{E}_{𝐤+})\delta (ϵ\stackrel{~}{E}_𝐤))`$ (18)
$`+v_𝐤v_{𝐤+𝐐}(\delta (ϵ+\stackrel{~}{E}_{𝐤+})\delta (ϵ+\stackrel{~}{E}_𝐤))]`$ (19)
When considering $`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{B}`$, one would naively expect that it is always smaller than $`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}`$, because the perturbation terms of the form $`\gamma _{𝐤\pm 𝐐}^{}\gamma _𝐤^{}`$ connect states that differ in energy by $`E_𝐤+E_{𝐤+𝐐}`$, a factor that is never small. However, in some cases the coherence factors in $`A_𝐤`$ vanish at important regions of the Brillouin zone, making $`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{A}(ϵ)`$ anomalously small. In addition, as we discuss below, both $`\rho ^{\mathrm{A},\mathrm{B}}(ϵ)`$ are large at biases corresponding to the saddle points on the degeneracy lines $`E_𝐤=E_{𝐤+𝐐}`$ and van Hove singularities of the Bogoliubov quasiparticles $`ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. A nearly identical analysis of the one above for $`\rho ^\mathrm{A}`$ yields

$`\rho _𝐐^\mathrm{B}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{B_𝐤^{}}{\sqrt{\left(\frac{E_𝐤+E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2}\right)^2+|B_𝐤|^2}}}`$ (20)
$`\times `$ $`[u_𝐤v_{𝐤+𝐐}\delta (ϵ\widehat{E}_{𝐤+})+u_{𝐤+𝐐}v_𝐤\delta (ϵ\widehat{E}_𝐤)`$ (21)
$`u_{𝐤+𝐐}v_𝐤\delta (ϵ+\widehat{E}_{𝐤+})u_𝐤v_{𝐤+𝐐}\delta (ϵ+\widehat{E}_𝐤)]`$ (22)
where $`\widehat{E}_{𝐤\pm }=\pm \frac{E_𝐤E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2}+\left[(\frac{E_𝐤+E_{𝐤+𝐐}}{2})^2+|B_𝐤|^2\right]^{1/2}`$. Equations (18,21), are two key results of this paper. In combination with Eqns (12), they provide an explicit expression for the energy dependence of the Fourier component of the local density of states $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ when the translational symmetry breaking is weak.

From the form of $`A_k`$ and $`B_k`$, it is obvious that when there is no mixing between bond and site centered CDW, $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ can be made real at all energies by an appropriate choice of the overall phase, i.e. by a shift in the origin of coordinates when doing the Fourier transform. One obvious observation is that the results for the site-centered and bond-centered CDW are identical modulo an overall phase factor of $`e^{iQ/2}`$. If one defines the Fourier transform in such a way that it is real in both cases, the origin will coincide with one of the sites of the lattice for the site-centered CDW, and it will be at the center of a bond for the bond-centered CDW. Hence careful analysis of the STM data allows one to distinguish two kinds of CDW, a task that is not possible in neutron scattering experiments with current resolution. Mixing site and bond-centered orders breaks inversion symmetry and leads to a complex-valued $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$.

## III Charge order with no randomness

### A Period four CDW in $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$

We first focus on modulations at $`𝐐=(2\pi /4,0)`$ that is relevant to $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ . Figure 2 shows results of the numerical evaluation of formulas (16), (18) and (21) for various perturbations (12). \[As transverse and longitudinal dimerization curves are qualitatively similar, curves corresponding to the former are not displayed.\] We choose the band structure and the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ in (3) appropriate to $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ : $`t_1/t=0.3`$, $`\mu /t=0.99`$ (this corresponds to $`14\%`$ doping), $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0/t=0.14`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=40`$ meV . We set $`V_0/t=0.02`$, although its precise value is inconsequential, as $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ scales linearly with $`V_0`$ when the latter is sufficiently small.

If we turn our attention to the expression for $`\rho ^\mathrm{A}`$, Eqn. (18), we see that the energy denominator is smallest for those quasiparticles lying close to the degeneracy points $`E_𝐤=E_{𝐤+𝐐}`$, which are strongly hybridized by the $`A_k`$ part of the perturbation. Figure (3) shows the four loci of such points, $`a`$ through $`d`$, that are degenerate with $`a^{}`$ to $`d^{}`$ respectively. The pairs $`aa^{}`$ and $`bb^{}`$ are obvious, since they have $`k_x=\pm \pi /4`$ and $`k_x=\pm 3\pi /4`$ (for the same $`k_y`$); the other two require a more detailed analysis of the band structure. Out of the set of degeneracy points, we expect large contributions from the neighborhood of points A and B, as the dispersion of hybridized energies $`\stackrel{~}{E}_{𝐤\pm }`$ is flat at these points. These same regions of the Brillouin zone will dominate the $`\rho _B`$ contribution, since the energy denominator in (21) will be small only if both $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤+𝐐`$ lie close to the Fermi surface, which occurs only in the neighborhood of points A and B. In addition we expect, for both $`\rho ^\mathrm{A}`$ and $`\rho ^\mathrm{B}`$ pieces, a large contribution at $`ϵ=\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, where a van Hove singularity for the Bogoliubov quasiparticles yields a logarithmic divergence in the density states.

We turn now to the numerical results displayed in Fig 2. Consider first the simple CDW curves. The sharp features that dominate the CDW plots can be understood in terms of the degeneracies mentioned above: the peak at energies around $`0.5\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ comes from the vicinity of the A point, the peak around $`0.7\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ comes from the vicinity of B, and the pile around $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ comes from the van Hove singularity near the $`(0,\pi )`$ and $`(\pi ,0)`$ points. The longitudinal dimerization results can be similarly understood by taking into account the additional minus sign in the vicinity of the point B due to the $`\mathrm{cos}(k_x+\pi /4)`$ factor in $`A_𝐤`$ and $`B_𝐤`$. The results for the anomalous dimerization can also be understood in this framework after taking into account the extra sign modulation in $`u_𝐤v_𝐤`$, which changes sign whenever $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤`$ does. Note that, for all perturbations considered, $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ displays approximate particle-hole symmetry for small biases, as observed in STM measurements . This is not a generic property of $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$; for example, for a diamond-shaped Fermi surface $`\mu =t^{}=0`$ the CDW signal is exactly antisymmetric. Finally, note that $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ goes to zero at $`ϵ=0`$ in all cases; this reflects the vanishing density of low-energy quasiparticle states in an ideal $`d`$-wave superconductor.

While the results in Figure 2 describe a system with infinite quasiparticle lifetime and no disorder, in a real system disorder will smear the sharp features in $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$. To model this, these curves are re-displayed in Figure 4 after smearing over an energy width $`w=0.2\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. This procedure smooths the sharp features in the spectra, and generates finite intensity at low energies. Notice that the smeared CDW curve does not have the two large peaks surrounding zero bias, nor does it have clear zero crossings at $`|ϵ|\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the dominant features of the STM spectra observed in . By contrast, the signal related to longitudinal dimerization or, especially, to either kind of anomalous dimerization, share many of the qualitative properties of the data. However, neither curve by itself accounts for all the observed features in the data. This prompts us to consider a combination of several kinds of order. For example, if we assume that no pairing modulation is present, the combination of longitudinal dimerization and CDW, $`(\mathrm{long}.\mathrm{dim}.)+1.05(\mathrm{CDW})`$, shown as a solid curve in Figure 5 reproduces the STM results reasonably well, with only a small difference in the position of the peaks ($`\pm 17`$ meV, compared to experimentally observed $`\pm 25`$ meV). Alternatively we can match experimental data by considering the combination of anomalous longitudinal dimerization and CDW, $`(\mathrm{anom}.\mathrm{long}.\mathrm{dim})+0.2(\mathrm{CDW})`$, shown as a dashed curve in Figure 5. It slightly overestimates the peak bias to be $`\pm 29`$ meV, and yields a low intensity at zero bias. Any intermediate combination between these two scenarios also gives good agreement with experiments. Although CDW was used in both combinations discussed above, it can be substituted by transverse dimerization, which yields a qualitatively similar $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ to CDW. We note that, for $`ϵ3\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the results come from the vicinity of the Fermi surface and are robust against variations in the band structure that do not alter qualitatively the shape of the Fermi surface (e.g. the $`a`$ and $`b^{}`$ lines do not move below the Fermi surface).

We note, however, that a certain care should be exercised when comparing our results to the STM spectra in . An additional complication of the experiments is that for every point on the surface of the sample the height of the STM tip is adjusted to keep the tunneling current at a certain voltage fixed. This implies that the local density of states is not measured directly, but instead its product with some space dependent function is measured. In Section V we review how this normalization procedure can be included in analysis.

### B Period eight CDW in $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$

To model $`\mathrm{YBa}_2\mathrm{Cu}_3\mathrm{O}_{6.35}`$ for which CDW-type peaks have been observed at $`Q=2\pi /8`$  we take the same band structure $`t_1/t=0.3`$, but a different value of the chemical potential $`\mu /t=0.815`$ (this corresponds to $`6\%`$ doping). We use the same value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0/t=0.14`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=40`$ meV, $`V_0/t=0.02`$, and keep the energy smearing $`w=0.2\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. The main difference with the charge order at $`Q=2\pi /4`$ is that the analog of line a in this case is inside the Fermi surface, so that the only contributions will come from the vicinity of point B at energies around $`0.8\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. This leads to less structure in $`\rho _𝐐(ϵ)`$ and smaller intensity at zero energy (see Fig. 6).

## IV Dispersion of the STM spectra

Recent experiments  demonstrated that the STM spectra of $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ cannot be explained by charge order at a unique wavevector. Peaks in $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ have been observed away from $`(2\pi /4,0)`$ and the wavevectors of the peaks are energy dependent. In this section we review and compare two possible scenarios for such dispersion of the STM spectrum: 1) randomness and pinning of charge order, 2) scattering of BCS quasiparticles by impurities and crystal defects. Both cases can be described using an extension of the formalism presented in the previous section. We consider a single particle Hamiltonian that generalizes equation (5)

$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}\sigma }{}}[V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}c_{𝐤,\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐪,\sigma }^{}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.`$ (23)
$`+W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}(c_{𝐤,\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤𝐪,\sigma }^{}+c_{𝐤,\sigma }c_{𝐤+𝐪,\sigma })+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.].`$ (24)
Here $`𝐪`$ describes the wavevector of the potential modulation, and the $`𝐤`$ dependence of $`V`$ and $`W`$ gives its internal structure (e.g. simple CDW vs dimerization) . In Section II we considered charge order at a unique wavevector that corresponds to taking potentials $`V`$ and $`W`$ as $`\delta (𝐪𝐐)`$. In the case of a disordered CDW we expect that these functions are no longer $`\delta `$-functions but are centered narrowly around some particular wavevector. By contrast, when translational symmetry breaking comes from impurities, we expect to find $`V`$ and $`W`$ that extend over a wide range of wavevectors $`𝐪`$. A crucial property of (18) and (21) is that $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ depends linearly on the perturbations $`V_𝐪`$ and $`W_𝐪`$, hence the formalism for computing $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ can be applied independently to each wavevector $`𝐪`$.

The charge order observed in $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$  had strong signatures of randomness and pinning in the form of lattice defects. The correlation length estimated from the distance between defects was $`20a_0`$. If we assume the charge order to be of the form 1.05(CDW)+(long.dim.), we can describe it as

$`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}=V_0(𝐪)\left(1.05+\mathrm{cos}(k_x+{\displaystyle \frac{q}{2}})\right),W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}=0`$ (25)
where $`V_0(𝐪)`$ is a Gaussian distribution function centered at $`(2\pi /4,0)`$ with a width $`2\pi /20a_0`$. We display in Fig. 7 the signal produced by a perturbation of this kind, for bias voltages 8, 12, 16, and 20 mV, as a function of wavevectors along the $`(0,0)`$ to $`(\pi ,0)`$ direction. The resulting dispersion agrees closely with that observed in  and .

In experiments of Hoffman et.al  and McElroy et.al  peaks in the LDOS were observed at very different wavevectors from $`(2\pi /4,0)`$ (including some in diagonal directions). This suggest that either $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ or $`W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ must be non-zero over a fairly wide range of values of q, and the most natural candidate is scattering by impurities . For concreteness, we assume that the impurity induces a higher chemical potential at a single site, so the perturbation used corresponds to a simple CDW which is uniform in q, $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}=V_0,`$ $`W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}=0`$. In Fig. 8 we show the signal computed along the $`(0,0)`$ to $`(\pi ,0)`$ direction at bias voltages 8, 12, 16, and 20 mV. In all cases there is a pronounced peak that disperses with the applied bias voltage. To find the positions of these peaks we reverse the arguments given in Section II. There, we started with a potential at wavevector $`𝐐`$ and found that only quasiparticles at certain energies were strongly affected by it. Now we need to find the modulation wavevector that affects quasiparticles at a given energy. From the band structure of $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ we find for the peak positions (in units of $`2\pi `$): 0.35, 0.32, 0.29, and 0.26. The curves on Fig. 8 show general agreement with this “quasiparticle scattering” argument , except for a consistent small shift to lower wavevector, which comes from the energy smearing procedure. This dispersion is stronger than that displayed in the data at wavevector $`(2\pi /4,0)`$, but is in good agreement with the dispersion observed at other wavevectors.

In the discussion above we considered two situations: ordered CDW and non-interacting electrons with impurities. There may also be an intermediate regime with interacting electrons close to the CDW instability and with disorder . Qualitatively, this case may be described by equation (23) but with the potentials $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ and $`W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ coming not only from the external fields but also from the density induced in the electron system. For simplicity let’s take only one of the channels discussed in Section II, e.g. simple CDW (the generalization to the case of several channels is straightforward). Then

$`\mathrm{\Delta }={\displaystyle \underset{𝐪}{}}\widehat{\rho }_𝐪^{}U_𝐪\widehat{\rho }_𝐪+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐪}{}}V_𝐪^{\mathrm{ext}}\widehat{\rho }_𝐪^{}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.`$ (26)
with

$`\widehat{\rho }_𝐪={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma }`$ (27)
Response of the quasiparticles to (26) in the Hartree approximation is determined by the effective perturbation Hamiltonian

$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}\sigma }{}}V_𝐪^{\mathrm{eff}}c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤\sigma }+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.`$ (28)
$`V_𝐪^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`V_𝐪^{\mathrm{ext}}+U_𝐪\widehat{\rho }_𝐪={\displaystyle \frac{V_𝐪^{\mathrm{ext}}}{1U_𝐪\chi _0(𝐪,\omega =0)}}`$ (29)
where $`\chi _0(𝐪,\omega =0)=\widehat{\rho }_𝐪\widehat{\rho }_𝐪^{}`$ must be computed for the non-interacting system. This corresponds to contributions to the LDOS from the class of diagrams in figure 9(a). When the system is close to the CDW instability, the denominator of (29) approaches zero around some particular wavevector $`𝐐`$. Hence, $`V_𝐪^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ may be peaked around $`𝐐`$ even when $`V_𝐪^{\mathrm{ext}}`$ is momentum independent. In principle we can go beyond the Hartree approximation, including diagrams such as those shown in figure 9(b,c). These will introduce a frequency-dependent self energy, as in the case of pinned spin density fluctuations considered in .

It is interesting to ask whether by analyzing experimental data one can separate contributions of disordered CDWs from those due to quasiparticle scattering off impurities. Reference  pointed out that the presence of a weakly dispersing signal at wavevector $`(2\pi /4,0)`$ makes charge order a likely candidate at that wavevector. Here we build on this idea and suggest that a more consistent approach is to analyze $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ at many different wavevectors using a reasonable set of basis functions, e.g. simple CDW and dimerization. Such analysis will give the $`𝐪`$ dependence of various components in the potentials $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ or $`W_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$. We expect that some of them will be almost uniform in momentum space and correspond to localized defects, such as impurities; whereas others will be centered around particular wavevectors and arise from the existence or at least proximity of charge order.

When the field of view of the STM measurement contains more than one impurity there are several important questions that we need to address. We must ask how the contributions from different impurities add up and whether the system retains the property of uniformity of phase of $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ at fixed $`𝐪`$ but different $`ϵ`$. We consider impurities that cause an arbitrary potential $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ in Eqn. (23), i.e. they may modify the chemical potential, the electron kinetic energy, or the pairing amplitude, but first we assume that all impurities are identical. The Fourier component of the LDOS is proportional to $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}^{tot}=V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}_{𝐫_a}e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}_a}`$, where $`𝐫_a`$ runs over impurity positions. If one impurity does not break parity symmetry, we can make $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ real by choosing the origin at the position of this impurity (see also discussion in Section II). This implies that $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}^{tot}`$ has a phase that depends on $`𝐪`$ only and is the same for all $`𝐤`$, which in turn proves that, at fixed $`𝐪`$, $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ has constant phase (modulo $`\pi `$) for all values of $`ϵ`$ (see Eqns (5)-(9)). So, in the case of identical impurities we have only one phase to worry about and we can always make $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ real by an appropriate choice of origin. When impurities are different, we will have an intrinsically complex $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$, with possibly energy dependent phase at different bias voltages. In either case, interference among the impurities leads to an appreciable suppression of the amplitude of $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$. When there are many impurities in the area $`A`$ of the STM field of view, and their positions are uncorrelated, each impurity introduces a random phase to $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}^{tot}`$, whose amplitude can be analyzed in terms of a random walk. Therefore, in a typical experiment we expect that with increasing the system size, $`\left|\rho _𝐪(ϵ)\right|`$ will decay as $`1/\sqrt{A}`$, with statistical fluctuations of the same order. This argument also applies to the case of disordered CDW, where the role of impurities is played by defects in the CDW lattice.

## V Experimental Considerations

Our discussion in the earlier sections was restricted to models on a square lattice for which we calculated the lattice density of states in the presence of several kinds of translational symmetry breaking. In analyzing actual experimental data, additional effects need to be taken into account: the real space structure of the atomic wavefunctions, and the current normalization condition used in the STM measurements . These are reviewed below.

### A Structure factors

For lattice Hamiltonians, wavevectors that differ by the reciprocal lattice vectors $`𝐆`$ are equivalent. For the Fourier components of the local density of states $`\rho _𝐪`$ this implies that $`\rho _{𝐪+𝐆}^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)=\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ for any $`𝐆`$. To understand why this equivalence is not observed in experiments we must take into account the real space structure of the Wannier wavefunctions of electrons in the conduction band. Here we study the effects of a single-band tight-binding model, in which Bloch states at the Fermi level can be written as a superposition of localized atomic orbitals $`\psi _𝐤(𝐫)=_𝐑e^{i\mathrm{𝐤𝐑}}\varphi (𝐫𝐑)`$.

We begin by projecting the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) wavefunctions in terms of the single-band wavefunctions,

$`u_n(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}a_𝐤^n\psi _𝐤(𝐫),`$
$`v_n(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}b_𝐤^n\psi _𝐤^{}(𝐫).`$
If we know how an operator $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Theta }}`$ acts on the Bloch wavefunctions $`\psi _𝐤`$, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Theta }}\psi _𝐤=_𝐤^{}\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐤}^{}}\psi _𝐤^{}`$, then the above relation induces an action on $`a_𝐤`$ through $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Theta }}a_𝐤=_𝐤^{}a_𝐤^{}\mathrm{\Theta }_{𝐤^{}𝐤}`$ (and similarly for $`b_𝐤`$). Thus, the solutions to the BdG equation

$`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{\xi }+\widehat{V}& \widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}+\widehat{W}\\ \widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}+\widehat{W}^{}& \widehat{\xi }\widehat{V}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}a_𝐤^n\\ b_𝐤^n\end{array}\right)=E_n\left(\begin{array}{c}a_𝐤^n\\ b_𝐤^n\end{array}\right)`$
will be independent of the Wannier wavefunction $`\varphi (𝐫)`$ once we determine the action of the BdG operator on the Bloch wavefunctions $`\psi _𝐤`$.

For positive biases $`ϵ>0`$ (the $`ϵ<0`$ case can be analyzed analogously), the LDOS is given by

$`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{phys}}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2𝐫e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}\underset{n}{}u_n^{}(𝐫)u_n(𝐫)\delta (ϵE_n)}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\delta (ϵE_n){\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐤𝐤}^{}}{}}a_𝐤^na_𝐤^{}^nJ(𝐤,𝐤^{},𝐪),`$
where

$`J(𝐤,𝐤^{},𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2𝐫e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐱}}\psi _𝐤^{}(𝐫)\psi _𝐤^{}(𝐫)}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐆}{}}\delta (𝐪(𝐤𝐤^{})+𝐆)\times `$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐑}{}}e^{i𝐤^{}𝐑}{\displaystyle d^2𝐫e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}\varphi ^{}(𝐫)\varphi (𝐫𝐑)}.`$
If we assume that the relevant electronic wavefunction is well localized, we can ignore terms involving the overlap across different sites ($`𝐑0`$) in the last integral. Then, the only dependence of $`J`$ on k and $`𝐤^{}`$ is through the crystal momentum conservation condition, and we find

$`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{phys}}(ϵ)=S_𝐪\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ (31)
with

$`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,n}{}}\delta (ϵE_n)a_𝐤^na_{𝐤+𝐪}^n`$
$`S_𝐪`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2𝐫|\varphi (𝐫)|^2e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}}.`$
One immediately recognizes that in (31) $`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ is the Fourier component of the lattice density of states that we analyzed in the earlier sections, and $`S_𝐪`$ is the structure factor determined by the atomic wavefunctions. Peaks in the STM spectra arise from $`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$, whereas $`S_𝐪`$ only provides additional wavevector dependence. Hence in our tight binding model we expect that wavevectors which differ only by reciprocal lattice vectors have peaks at the same energies, but with generally different intensities.

### B Current Normalization Condition

An additional subtlety of STM experiments in  is the space-dependent normalization used. It is natural to assume that the tunneling matrix elements do not change appreciably with energy over the energy range of interest. Thus, if $`z`$ is the height of the STM tip above the sample, and $`𝐫`$ is its 2D coordinate along the plane of the sample surface, then the differential tunneling conductance $`g`$ can be written as

$`g(𝐫,z,ϵ)=f(𝐫,z)\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ),`$
where $`\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$ is the 2D density of states in the CuO plane. The experiments in  adjust the $`z`$ coordinate at every point $`𝐫`$ along the surface, so as to keep the current at $`V_f`$ fixed at a predetermined value $`I_f`$. The differential conductance normalized in this fashion is

$`g^{\mathrm{meas}}(𝐫,ϵ)=f(𝐫)\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ),`$
where $`f(𝐫)=I_f/_0^{eV_f}𝑑ϵ\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$. Let us now discuss some properties of $`g^{\mathrm{meas}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$.

The spatial variation in $`f(𝐫)`$ is dominated by the inhomogeneous quasiparticle weight within a unit cell. To see this, write

$`\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ)=\rho _{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫,ϵ)+\rho _{\mathrm{TSB}}(𝐫,ϵ),`$
where $`\rho _{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$ is periodic with the lattice and is of order one, whereas $`\rho _{\mathrm{TSB}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$ breaks lattice translational symmetry and is of order $`V_0`$ in our formalism. If we define $`f_{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫)=I_f/_0^{eV_f}𝑑ϵ\rho _{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫,ϵ),`$ then

$`f(𝐫)=f_{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫)(1H(𝐫))`$
in terms of a TSB function $`H(𝐫)`$ of order $`V_0`$.

It is convenient to absorb $`f_{\mathrm{per}}`$ into $`\rho `$ by introducing a new function, $`\rho ^{}(𝐫,ϵ)f_{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫)\rho ^{\mathrm{phys}}(𝐫,ϵ)`$. Due to the symmetry properties of $`f_{\mathrm{per}}`$, $`\rho ^{}`$ is simply related to $`\rho ^{\mathrm{lattice}}`$ through a modified structure factor

$`\rho _𝐪^{}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`S_𝐪^{}\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ (32)
$`S_𝐪^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2𝐫f_{\mathrm{per}}(𝐫)|\varphi (𝐫)|^2e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}}.`$ (33)
Expressing $`g^{\mathrm{meas}}`$ in terms of $`\rho ^{}`$,

$`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)=\rho _𝐪^{}(ϵ){\displaystyle \frac{d^2𝐤}{(2\pi )^2}H_{𝐪𝐤}\rho _𝐤^{}(ϵ)},`$ (34)
we see that $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ gets “direct” contributions from structure in the LDOS at wavevector $`𝐪`$, as well as “shadow” contributions from structure in the LDOS at other wavevectors $`𝐤`$, whenever $`H_{𝐪𝐤}`$ is non-zero. Whereas (34) is an exact relation, it is useful to truncate it to order $`V_0`$ by keeping in the second term only those contributions coming from the neighborhood of the reciprocal vectors $`𝐤𝐆`$,

$`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _𝐪^{}(ϵ)\alpha _𝐪\rho _{𝐤=0}^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)+O(V_0^2)`$ (35)
$`\alpha _𝐪`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{G}{}}H_{𝐪𝐆}S_𝐆^{}`$ (36)
In this approximation the shadow contribution to $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ factorizes into the space-dependent factor $`\alpha _𝐪`$ and the space-averaged density of states $`\rho _{𝐤=0}^{\mathrm{lattice}}g^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$. From (35) and (36) we can verify an important property of the tunneling spectra

$`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{𝐪+𝐆}^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)}{g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)}}={\displaystyle \frac{S_{𝐪+𝐆}^{}}{S_𝐪^{}}}`$ (37)
when $`𝐆`$ is a vector of the reciprocal lattice and $`𝐪`$ is not. Hence, we expect $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ and $`g_{𝐪+𝐆}^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ to have peaks at the same energies but in general with different overall amplitudes.

An interesting question to ask is whether it is possible to analyze experimental data in a way that would allow to separate direct and shadow contributions to $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$. Below we demonstrate that this is possible using an exact sum rule obeyed by $`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$. Regardless of the model used and the nature of the symmetry breaking perturbation, the sum over all frequencies of $`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ should be identically zero for all $`𝐪`$ different from the reciprocal lattice vectors $`𝐆`$:

$`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑ϵ\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}0|\{c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma },c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}\}|0`$
$``$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{𝐆}{}}(2\pi )^2\delta (𝐪𝐆).`$
In principle, this identity can be used to remove the shadow contribution in equation (34). In particular, for $`𝐪𝐆`$, combining the approximate result (35) and our knowledge of $`\rho _{𝐤=0}^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ from experiment, we can fix $`\alpha _𝐪`$ by requiring the sum rule to be obeyed:

$`\rho _𝐪^{}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)g^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ){\displaystyle \frac{_{V_{\mathrm{MAX}}}^{V_{\mathrm{MAX}}}g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)𝑑ϵ}{_{V_{\mathrm{MAX}}}^{V_{\mathrm{MAX}}}g^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)𝑑ϵ}}`$ (38)
Here $`V_{\mathrm{MAX}}`$ should be chosen sufficiently large so that the ratio of the two integrals is close to its saturated value, yet it should be small enough that we are still justified in using a single band model and a local picture of electron tunneling.

For completeness, we also list two other sum rules obeyed by tunneling spectra. By construction, at every wavevector $`𝐪0`$ the function $`g_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)`$ must satisfy the normalization condition

$`{\displaystyle _0^{eV_f}}𝑑ϵg_𝐪^{\mathrm{meas}}(ϵ)=0.`$
One can derive an independent sum rule if we restrict the class of symmetry breaking Hamiltonians to effective one-particle operators (23) \[This includes all perturbations considered in this work.\] Then the $`ϵ`$-weighted average of $`\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ will be, for $`𝐪𝐆`$,

$`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑ϵϵ\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}0|\{[c_{𝐤+𝐪\sigma },H],c_{𝐤\sigma }^{}\}|0`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}.`$
For the basis functions discussed in Section II we find that only the $`V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ describing simple CDW gives finite contributions after summing over $`𝐤`$. Hence,

$`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑ϵϵ\rho _𝐪^{\mathrm{lattice}}(ϵ)=2V_𝐪^{\mathrm{cdw}}.`$
It is important to point out that this sum rule will be spoiled by shadow contributions in (34), and is only of use if these have been previously removed, using for example procedure in equation (38).

As a useful consistency check of our formalism, one can easily verify that expressions (16), (18), and (21) satisfy both sum rules. We emphasize, however, that although these expressions are only correct to linear order in perturbation strength, the sum rules are non-perturbative and therefore hold to all orders in perturbation theory. Furthermore, their validity is not affected by the introduction of finite quasiparticle lifetimes as, for any normalized symmetric distribution $`g(ϵ)`$, $`𝑑ϵ(\alpha +\beta ϵ)g(ϵϵ_0)=\alpha +\beta ϵ_0`$. By contrast, the average of $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ weighted by any other power of $`ϵ`$ is sensitive to details of quasiparticle smearing.

Unfortunately, these sum rules are of limited immediate use, since the bulk of the integration comes from large energies, whereas current experiments only probe a relatively narrow range of biases about the chemical potential.

## VI Photoemission

Before concluding, we would like to propose a way of identifying weak charge ordering in photoemission experiments that could supplement current STM studies. A common signature of a strong charge ordering in the ARPES experiments is the presence of shadow bands: the electron spectral function at momentum $`𝐤`$ acquires an additional peak at the energy of the quasiparticle at momentum $`𝐤+𝐐`$. For weak charge order the shadow bands may be difficult to observe: when the energy difference between $`E_𝐤`$ and $`E_{𝐤+𝐐}`$ is large, mixing between quasiparticles is negligible and the intensity of the shadow peaks is vanishingly small. Strong mixing only occurs when states $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤+𝐐`$ are nearly degenerate, although in this case the two peaks are hard to distinguish since they are close in energy. Thus we expect to observe an increase of the apparent linewidth of quasiparticles when the latter satisfy the degeneracy condition $`E_𝐤=E_{𝐤+𝐐}`$ and are strongly affected by the charge order. For example, in the case of the $`\mathrm{Bi}_2\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{CaCu}_2\mathrm{O}_{8+\delta }`$ band structure shown on Figure 3 we expect an anomalous increase in the apparent quasiparticle linewidth at the points A, A’, B, and B’ on the Fermi surface.

## VII Conclusions

To summarize, we considered the effects of weak translational symmetry breaking on the $`d`$-wave superconducting state of the cuprates. For systems with periodic charge order we derived an explicit formula for the energy dependence of the Fourier component of the local density of states for several types of order, including simple charge density wave, electron kinetic energy and superconducting gap modulations. We argued that within a one band model the STM spectra observed in  cannot be explained by a simple charge density wave but require the existence of some form of (anomalous) dimerization, i.e. modulation in the electron hopping or in the superconducting pairing amplitude. We discussed a situation in which charge order has finite correlation length due to pinning by impurities. In this case the LDOS has Fourier components for a range of momenta around the ordering wavevector $`𝐐`$. For different wavevectors $`𝐪`$, peaks in $`\rho _𝐪(ϵ)`$ will occur at different energies, although the peak dispersion is weak, in agreement with . We also considered systems in which translational symmetry breaking comes not from charge ordering but from impurities. We found that the Fourier components of the LDOS in this case have peaks for a wide range of wavevectors and strong dispersion of these peaks is consistent with the STM experiments of Refs. .

We thank J.C. Campuzano, J.C. Davis, J.P. Hu, A. Kaminski, A. Kapitulnik, S. Kivelson, S. Sachdev, and S.C. Zhang for illuminating discussions. This work was supported by the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative of the National Science Foundation under NSF Award Number PHY-0117795 and by NSF grants DMR-9981283, DMR-9714725, and DMR-9976621


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# Thermal Parameters in Heavy Ion Collisions at SPS and RHIC: Centrality Dependence

## I Introduction

It has been shown that various observables of relativistic heavy-ion collisions can be well described by statistical-thermal or hydrodynamical models. In such a way, a selected subset of a large number of observables can be reproduced by a small number of characteristic parameters, such as temperature, density or flow velocity. It is the subject of the present note to pursue this idea and to analyze the centrality dependence of the thermal parameters describing hadron multiplicities and dilepton spectra in the intermediate-mass region. This will provide further information about the effects of the size of the excited strongly interacting system and help in the systematic understanding of the experimental data.

The aim of the present work is twofold: (i) the previous analysis  of hadron multiplicities at SPS and RHIC is repeated and improved, e.g., by including feed-down from weak decays, and (ii) the consideration of the intermediate-mass dilepton spectra at SPS is outlined in more detail, in particular by analyzing both the invariant mass and transverse momentum spectra.

## II Hadron Multiplicities

Hadron multiplicities can be reproduced  by the grand-canonical partition function $`𝒵_i(V,T,\mu ^\alpha )=\text{Tr}\left[\mathrm{exp}\{(\widehat{H}\mu ^\alpha Q_i^\alpha )/T\}\right]`$, where $`\widehat{H}`$ is the statistical operator of the system, $`T`$ denotes the temperature, and $`\mu ^\alpha `$ and $`Q_i^\alpha `$ represent the chemical potentials and corresponding conserved charges respectively. In the analysis of $`4\pi `$ data, the net-zero strangeness and the baryon-to-electric charge ratio of the colliding nuclei constrain the components $`\mu ^\alpha =(\mu _B,\mu _S,\mu _Q`$), where the subscripts $`B,S`$ and $`Q`$ refer to baryon, strangeness, electric charge. These constraints have to be relaxed when considering data in a limited rapidity window, increasing the number of free parameters. The particle numbers are given by

$$N_i^{\mathrm{prim}}=V(2J_i+1)\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}𝑑m_i\left[\gamma _s^{S_i}\text{e}^{\frac{E_i\mu ^\alpha Q_i^\alpha }{T}}\pm 1\right]^1\text{BW}(m_i),$$
(1)
where we include phenomenologically a strangeness saturation factor $`\gamma _s`$ (with $`S_i`$ the total number of strange quarks in hadron species $`i`$) to account for incomplete equilibration in this sector, $`E_i=\sqrt{\stackrel{}{p}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+m_i^2}`$, and BW is the Breit-Wigner distribution (to be replaced by a $`\delta `$-function for stable hadrons). The final particle numbers are $`N_i=N_i^{\mathrm{prim}}+_j\text{Br}^{ji}N_j^{\mathrm{prim}}`$ due to decays of unstable particles with branching ratios $`\text{Br}^{ji}`$. Such a description can certainly be justified for multiplicities measured over the whole phase-space, since many dynamical effects cancel out in ratios of hadron yields.

We have analyzed two data sets: (i) NA49 $`4\pi `$ multiplicities of $`\pi =\frac{1}{2}(\pi ^++\pi ^{})`$, $`K^\pm `$, $`\overline{p}`$, $`\varphi `$, and $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ (taken as the sum over all baryons) in 6 centrality bins in the reaction Pb(158 AGeV) + Pb  (it should be emphasized that protons are not included in our analysis  since there may be a spectator component in non-central collisions), and (ii) PHENIX mid-rapidity densities of $`\pi ^\pm `$, $`K^\pm `$, and $`p^\pm `$ in the reaction Au + Au at $`\sqrt{s}=130`$ AGeV in 5 centrality bins . In  it is estimated that the probability for reconstructing protons from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decays as prompt protons is 32% at $`p_T`$ = 1 GeV/c. This is the probability for feed-down used in our present fits to the mid-rapidity PHENIX data. The results of our fits are displayed in Fig. 1. Specific features of the $`\varphi `$ mesons at SPS will be discussed elsewhere .

A comparison of the individual thermal parameters of both data sets is displayed in Fig. 2, which corrects Fig. 2 in  (the correction of a coding error in  lowers the temperature and brings it in agreement with ). Most remarkable is the drop of the baryo-chemical potential $`\mu _B`$ and the rise of the strangeness saturation factor $`\gamma _s`$ when going from $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ AGeV to 130 AGeV. It would appear that $`T`$ remains essentially constant for $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ AGeV, while at 130 AGeV it rises with $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$. The parameter $`\mu _B`$ is fairly independent of the centrality, while the strangeness saturation factor increases with centrality. Despite the rather limited set of analyzed hadron species, the extracted thermal parameters describe other hadron yields, which are at our disposal in central collisions, fairly well.

## III Intermediate-Mass Dileptons

As pointed out in , the dilepton spectra can be analyzed in the same spirit as the hadron multiplicities and hadron momentum spectra, i.e., one discards any detail of the dynamics and asks only for a simple parameterization. As a result, one gets for the thermal dilepton spectrum

$$\frac{dN}{d^4Q}=\frac{5\alpha ^2}{36\pi ^4}N_{\mathrm{dil}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{M_{}\mathrm{cosh}(YY_{\mathrm{cms}})}{T_{\mathrm{dil}}}\right\},$$
(2)
where $`Q`$ is the lepton pair’s four-momentum, $`M_{}`$ its transverse mass and $`Y`$ its rapidity; $`Y_{\mathrm{cms}}`$ denotes the fireball rapidity, and $`N_{\mathrm{dil}}`$ is a normalization factor characterizing the space-time volume of the fireball; flow effects are negligible for invariant mass spectra. Eq. (2) is based on the quark-hadron duality .

In  we have shown that the space-time averaged temperature parameter $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}170`$ MeV (i.e., a value coinciding with the chemical freeze-out temperature) provides a common description of the low-mass CERES data  and the

intermediate-mass NA50 data  at $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ AGeV; also the WA98 photon data  are consistent with this value. It was, therefore, a surprise to us that our analysis of the efficiency corrected and centrality binned NA50 data  separately with $`N_{\mathrm{dil}}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}`$ as free parameters give as optimum fit a temperature scale in the order of 250 MeV , see Figs. 3 and 4.***Note that in Figs. 3 and 4 the used normalization of both the Drell-Yan yield and the open charm contribution differs by a factor 1/1.5 from the subsequent figures. This covers the uncertainty in fitting the large-$`M`$ Drell-Yan tail and the relative normalization of the charm contribution. At this temperature the spectral shapes of thermal dileptons (Therm) and dileptons from semileptonic correlated decays of open charm mesons (DD) are nearly identical within the NA50 acceptance.

To illustrate the sensitivity on the temperature parameter we exhibit in Figs. 5 and 6 a comparison with the data when using a fixed value of $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}=170`$ MeV. In contrast to the fits displayed in Figs. 3 and 4 the normalization factor now systematically increases with centrality, as expected. This could be interpreted as a hint that the complete disentangling of temperature parameter and normalization factor is not fully adequate.We thank R. Rapp for pointing out this possibility. Rather, due to the space-time evolution both quantities are correlated. Because of uncertainties in the normalization and the shape of the Drell-Yan (DY) and charm contributions the previously found value of $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}170`$ MeV  can not be excluded.

In addition to the invariant mass spectra also transverse momentum spectra integrated over the intermediate-mass region $`M=1.6\mathrm{}2.5`$ GeV are at our disposal. At first glance, they do not better constrain the temperature parameter $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}`$ since the large-$`Q_{}`$ region is dominated by the Drell-Yan yield, see Figs. 7 and 8. The low-$`Q_{}`$ region, however, favors a smaller value of $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}`$, while the large-$`Q_{}`$ region could be fine tuned by a slight change of the intrinsic transverse parton momentum (we use here $`\sqrt{k_{}^2}=0.8`$ GeV ).

In contrast to the invariant mass spectra, where the thermal yield at $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}250`$ MeV has the same shape as the charm yield, the transverse mass spectra of charm and thermal contributions look similar at $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}170`$ MeV.

## IV Summary

The analysis of hadron multiplicities indicates a centrality independence of the chemical freeze-out temperature and baryo-chemical potential for $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ AGeV, while at $`\sqrt{s}=130`$ AGeV the baryo-chemical potential is constant but the temperature increases with centrality. The strangeness saturation increases with centrality for both $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ AGeV and 130 AGeV and appears to approach unity with further increasing energy and maximum centrality.

The analysis of the intermediate-mass dilepton spectra taken by the NA50 collaboration is not yet conclusive. Our parameterization of the thermal contribution is based on quark-hadron duality where the shape and the normalization are not interrelated. We find an indication that the space-time averaged temperature determining the shape of dilepton spectra stays fairly independent of centrality, but is significantly larger than previously anticipated in  thus being in agreement with values deduced in  from photon data. It should be noted, however, that the analysis is sensitive to details of the Drell-Yan and open charm dilepton yields, both their shape and normalization. In view of these inherent uncertainties, the centrality independent value of $`T_{\mathrm{dil}}170`$ MeV appears still compatible with the NA50 data.

## Acknowledgment(s)

We are grateful to M. Gazdzicki, F. Sikler, Ch. Blume, and C. Lourenco for discussions on the experimental data and K. Redlich for continuous discussions concerning the thermal model. The work is supported by BMBF 06DR921.