Suppression of superconductivity at a nematic critical point in underdoped cuprates

A nematic quantum critical point is anticipated to exist in the superconducting dome of some high-temperature superconductors. The nematic order competes with the superconducting order and hence reduces the superconducting condensate at T = 0. Moreover, the critical fluctuations of nematic order can excite more nodal quasiparticles out of the condensate. We address these two effects within an effective field theory and show that superfluid density rho(s)(T) and superconducting temperature T-c are both suppressed strongly by the critical fluctuations. The strong suppression of superconductivity provides a possible way to determine the nematic quantum critical point.