Self-consistent calculation of the single particle scattering rate in high Tc cuprates

The linear temperature dependence of the resistivity above the optimal doping is a longstanding problem in the field of high temperature superconductivity in cuprates. In this paper, we investigate the effect of gauge fluctuations on the momentum relaxation time and the transport scattering rate within the slave boson method. We use a more general slave treatment to resolve the ambiguity of decomposing the Heisenberg exchange term. We conclude that this term should be decomposed only in the Cooper channel. This results in the spinon mass inversely proportional to the doping. It is showed that solving the equation for the transport scattering rate self-consistently, we find a crossover temperature above which we obtain the linear temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity as well as the single particle scattering rate. It is also shown that this linear temperature dependence of the scattering rate in the pseudogap region explains the existence of the Fermi arcs with a length that linearly varies with temperature.