NONMAGNETIC IMPURITY IN THE SPIN-GAP STATE

The effects of nonmagnetic strong scatterers (unitary limit) on magnetic and transport properties are studied for resonating-valence-bond states in both the slave-boson and slave-fermion mean-field theories with the gap for the triplet excitations. In the d-wave pairing state of the slave-boson mean-field theory in two dimensions, there is no true gap for spinons, but the Anderson localization occurs, which leads to the local moment when the repulsive interaction is taken into account. In the slave-fermion mean-field theory, local moments are found bound to nonmagnetic impurities as a result of (staggered) gauge interaction. However, in both theories, localization of spinon does not appear in the resistivity, which shows the classical value for the holon. © 1995 The American Physical Society.