Calculation of entropy and specific heat in the spin polaron formulation at finite temperature

Entropy and specific heat are calculated using the spin polaron formulation at finite temperature. Our theoretical approach makes use of the Matsubara Green's function method where the interaction term in the S-matrix is the spin polaron Hamiltonian, which is constructed in a representation where holes are described as spinless fermions (holons) and spins as normal bosons. In the absence of this interaction term, the normal entropy and specific heat are obtained from the free holon thermodynamic potential and are found to resemble the BCS expressions in the low temperature regime. A second cumulant expansion of the thermodynamic potential with the spin polaron interaction yields an expression for the specific heat whose dominant term in the low temperature limit and small quasiparticle energy difference, resembles the superconducting-state electronic specific heat of the BCS theory.