The physics of high-Tc superconducting cuprates is obscured by the effect of strong electronic correlations. One way to overcome this problem is to seek an exact solution at least within a small cluster and expand it to the whole crystal. Such an approach is at the heart of cluster perturbation theory (CPT). Here, we developed CPT for the dynamic spin and charge susceptibilities (spin-CPT and charge-CPT), with the correlation effects explicitly taken into account by the exact diagonalization. We applied spin-CPT and charge-CPT to the effective two-band Hubbard model for the cuprates obtained from the three-band Emery model and calculated one- and two-particle correlation functions, namely, a spectral function and spin and charge susceptibilities. The doping dependence of the spin susceptibility was studied within spin-CPT and CPT-RPA, that is, the CPT generalization of the random phase approximation (RPA). In the underdoped region, both our methods resulted in the signatures of the upper branch of the spin excitation dispersion with the lowest excitation energy at the (π,π) wave vector and no presence of low-energy incommensurate excitations. In the high doping region, both methods produced a low energy response at four incommensurate wave vectors in qualitative agreement with the results of the inelastic neutron scattering experiments on overdoped cuprates.
The t-J-U model of high-Tc copper-oxide superconductors incorporates both the on-site Coulomb repulsion and kinetic exchange interaction and yields a semi-quantitative description of the static properties of those materials. We extend this analysis to dynamic quantities and address collective spin- and charge excitations in the correlated metallic state of the t-J-U model. We employ VWF+1/Nf approach that combines the variational wave function (VWF) approach with the expansion in the inverse number of fermionic flavors (1/Nf). It is shown that the resonant (paramagnon) contribution to the dynamic magnetic susceptibility remains robust as one interpolates between the Hubbard- and t-J-model limits, whereas the incoherent continuum undergoes substantial renormalization. Energy of the collective charge mode diminishes as the strong-coupling limit is approached. We also introduce the concept of effective kinetic exchange interaction that allows for a unified interpretation of magnetic dynamics in the Hubbard, t-J, and t-J-U models. The results are discussed in the context of recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments for the high-Tc cuprates.
The single-particle spectral properties of the two-dimensional $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model in the parameter regime relevant to cuprate high-temperature superconductors are investigated using cluster perturbation theory. Various anomalous features observed in cuprate high-temperature superconductors are collectively explained in terms of the dominant modes near the Mott transition in this model. Although the behavior of the dominant modes in the low-energy regime is similar to that in the two-dimensional Hubbard model, significant differences appear near the Mott transition for the high-energy electron removal excitations which can be considered to primarily originate from holon modes in one dimension. The overall spectral features are confirmed to remain almost unchanged as the cluster size is increased from $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4$ to $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}6$ sites by using a combined method of the non-Abelian dynamical density-matrix renormalization group method and cluster perturbation theory.
Recent experiments (angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and Raman) suggest the presence of two distinct energy gaps in high-temperature superconductors (HTSC), exhibiting different doping dependences. The results of a variational cluster approach to the superconducting state of the two-dimensional Hubbard model are presented which show that this model qualitatively describes this gap dichotomy. The antinodal gap increases with less doping, a behavior long considered as reflecting the general gap behavior of the HTSC. On the other hand, the near-nodal gap does even slightly decrease with underdoping. An explanation of this unexpected behavior is given which emphasizes the crucial role of spin fluctuations in the pairing mechanism.
We provide a unified interpretation of both paramagnon and plasmon modes in high-
Tc copper-oxides, and verify it quantitatively against available resonant inelastic
x-ray scattering (RIXS) data across the hole-doped phase diagram. The three-dimensional extended Hubbard model, with included long-range Coulomb interactions and doping-independent microscopic parameters for both classes of quantum fluctuations, is used. Collective modes are studied using
VWF+1/Nf approach which extends variational wave function (VWF) scheme by means of an expansion in inverse number of fermionic flavors
(1/Nf). We show that intense paramagnons persist along the antinodal line from the underdoped to the overdoped regime and undergo rapid overdamping in the nodal direction. Plasmons exhibit a three-dimensional character, with minimal energy corresponding to antiphase oscillations on neighboring
CuO2 planes. The theoretical spin- and charge excitation energies reproduce semiquantitatively RIXS data for ${(\mathrm{Bi},\mathrm{Pb})}_{2}{(\mathrm{Sr},\mathrm{La})}_{2}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{6+\ensuremath{\delta}}$. The present
VWF+1/Nf analysis of dynamics and former VWF results for static quantities combine into a consistent description of the principal properties of hole-doped high-
Tc cuprates as strongly correlated systems.
We discuss recent applications of exact numerical continued fraction expansion (CFE) techniques to calculate dynamical correlation functions of various strong-coupling models related to the high-temperature cuprate superconductors. For the two-dimensional square-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we present exact results for the zero-temperature dynamical structure factor on finite-sized lattices and compare them to approximate results from a Schwinger boson mean-field theory, recently proposed by Arovas and Auerbach. We find that the mean-field theory represents a very good approximation to the exact spin excitation spectra and to the static spin correlations. We then investigation the dynamical spin-spin structure factor and the single-particle spectral function for finite model clusters with dopant induced hole-type charge carriers, in the strong-coupling limit of both the single-band Hubbard model (t-J-model) and the three-band Hubbard model (Kondo-Heisenberg model). Our results are consistent with the physical picture recently proposed by Zhang and Rice which implies an approximate mapping of the low-energy states in the three-band model onto an effective single-band theory. 33 refs., 4 figs.