NON-FERMI-LIQUID BEHAVIOR AND D-WAVE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY NEAR THE CHARGE-DENSITY-WAVE QUANTUM CRITICAL-POINT

A scenario is presented, in which the presence of a quantum critical p oint due to formation of incommensurate charge density waves accounts for the basic features of the high temperature superconducting cuprate s, both in the normal and in the superconducting states. Specifically, the singular interaction arising close to this charge-driven quantum critical point gives rise to the non-Fermi liquid behavior universally found at optimal doping. This interaction is also responsible for d-w ave Cooper pair formation with a superconducting critical temperature strongly dependent on doping in the overdoped region and with a platea u in the optimally doped region. In the underdoped region a temperatur e dependent pairing potential favors local pair formation without supe rconducting coherence, with a peculiar temperature dependence of the p seudogap and a non-trivial relation between the pairing temperature an d the gap itself. This last property is in good qualitative agreement with so far unexplained features of the experiments.