Fluctuation Spectrum of Critical Fermi Surfaces

We investigate the Gaussian fluctuation spectrum of the large N Yukawa-SYK model, which describes a Fermi surface coupled to an Ising-nematic quantum critical point in (2+1) spacetime dimensions with translation symmetry. The large N saddle point is described by the Migdal-Eliashberg equations, and the Gaussian fluctuation around it is generated by the Bethe-Salpeter kernel KBS. Based on the Ward identities, we propose an inner product on the space of two point functions, which reveals a large number of soft modes of KBS. These soft modes parameterize deformation of the Fermi surface, and their fluctuation eigenvalues describe their decay rates. We analytically compute these eigenvalues for a circular Fermi surface, and we discover the odd-parity modes to be parametrically longer-lived than the even-parity modes, due to the kinematic constraint of fermions scattering on a convex FS. The sign of the eigenvalues signals an instability of the Ising-nematic quantum critical point at zero temperature for a convex Fermi surface. At finite temperature, the system can be stabilized by thermal fluctuations of the critical boson. We derive an effective action that describes the soft-mode dynamics, and it leads to a linearized Boltzmann equation, where the real part of the soft-mode eigenvalues can be interpreted as the collision rates. The structure of the effective action is similar to the theory of linear bosonization of a Fermi surface. Analyzing the Boltzmann equation, we obtain a conventional hydrodynamic transport regime and a tomographic transport regime. In both regimes, the conductance of the system in finite geometry can be a sharp indicator for the soft-mode dynamics and non-Fermi liquid physics.