We study the nature of the zero-temperature phase transition between a d-wave superconductor and a Mott insulator in two dimensions. In this “quantum confinement transition,” spin and charge are confined to form the electron in the Mott insulator. Within a dual formulation, direct transitions from d-wave superconductors at half-filling to insulators with spin-Peierls (as well as other) order emerge naturally. The possibility of striped superconductors is also discussed within the dual formulation. The transition is described by nodal fermions and bosonic vortices, interacting via a long-ranged statistical interaction modeled by two coupled Chern-Simons gauge fields, and the critical properties of this model are discussed.

• Received 31 July 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.63.134510