PHASE STRING EFFECT IN THE T-J MODEL - GENERAL-THEORY

We reexamine the problem of a hole moving in an antiferromagnetic spin background and find that the injected hole will always pick up a sequ ence of nontrivial phases from the spin degrees of freedom. Previously unnoticed, such a stringlike phase originates from the hidden Marshal l signs which are scrambled by the hopping of the hole. We can rigorou sly show that this phase string is nonrepairable at low energy and giv e a general proof that the spectral weight Z must vanish at the ground -state energy due to the phase-string effect. Thus, the quasiparticle description fails here and the quantum interference effect of the phas e string dramatically affects the long-distance behavior of the inject ed hole. We introduce a so-called phase-string formulation of the t-J model for a general number of holes in which the phase-string effect c an be explicitly tracked. As an example, by applying this new mathemat ical formulation in one dimension, we reproduce the well-known Lutting er-liquid behaviors of the asymptotic single-electron Green's function and the spin-spin correlation function. We can also use the present p hase-string theory to justify previously developed spin-charge separat ion theory in two dimensions, which offers a systematic explanation fo r the transport and magnetic anomalies in the high-T-c cuprates.