Gauge invariance and spinon-dopon confinement in the t-J model: implications for Fermi surface reconstruction in the cuprates

We discuss the application of the two-band spin-dopon representation of the t-J model to address the issue of the Fermi surface reconstruction observed in the cuprates. We show that the electron no double occupancy (NDO) constraint plays a key role in this formulation. In particular, the auxiliary lattice spin and itinerant dopon degrees of freedom of the spin-dopon formulation of the t-J model are shown to be confined in the emergent U(1) gauge theory generated by the NDO constraint. This constraint is enforced by the requirement of an infinitely large spin-dopon coupling. As a result, the t-J model is equivalent to a Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model of itinerant dopons and localized lattice spins at infinite Kondo coupling at all dopings. We show that mean-field treatment of the large vs. small Fermi surface crossing in the cuprates which leaves out the NDO constraint, leads to inconsistencies and it is automatically excluded form the t-J model framework. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013