In the derivation of low-energy effective models for solids targeting the bands near the Fermi level, the constrained random-phase approximation (cRPA) has become an appreciated tool to compute the effective interactions. The Wick-ordered constrained functional renormalization group (cfRG) generalizes the cRPA approach by including all interaction channels in an unbiased way. Here we present applications of the cfRG to two simple multiband systems and compare the resulting effective interactions to the cRPA. First, we consider a multiband model for monolayer graphene, where we integrate out the $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ bands to get an effective theory for $\ensuremath{\pi}$ bands. It turns out that terms beyond cRPA are strongly suppressed by the different
xy-plane reflection symmetry of the bands. In our model the cfRG corrections to cRPA become visible when one disturbs this symmetry difference slightly, however, without qualitative changes. This study shows that the embedding or layering of two-dimensional electronic systems can alter the effective interaction parameters beyond what is expected from screening considerations. The second example is a one-dimensional model for a diatomic system reminiscent of a CuO chain, where we consider an effective theory for Cu
3d-like orbitals. Here the fRG data shows relevant and qualitative corrections compared to the cRPA results. We argue that the new interaction terms affect the magnetic properties of the low-energy model.
The effective interaction of downfolded low-energy models for electrons in solids can be obtained by integrating out the high energy bands away from the target band near the Fermi level. Here we apply the constrained random-phase approximation (cRPA) and constrained functional renormalization group (cfRG), which can go beyond cRPA by including all one-loop diagrams, to calculate and compare the effective interactions of the three-band Emery model, which is often used to investigate cuprate high-temperature superconductors. At half-filling we find that the effective interaction increases as the charge transfer energy (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{dp}$) increases and similar behavior is obtained as a function of the interatomic $2p\text{\ensuremath{-}}3d$ interaction (
Udp). However, the effective interaction is more sensitive to ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{dp}$ than
Udp. For most of the parameter sets, the effective static interaction is overscreened in cRPA compared to cfRG. The low-energy models at half-filling are solved within dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The results show that despite the different static interactions, the systems with cRPA and cfRG interaction exhibit a Mott transition at similar values of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{dp}$. We also investigate the effective interaction as a function of doping. The cfRG effective interaction decreases as the electron number increases and displays a trend opposite to that of cRPA. Antiscreening is observed for the hole-doped case. For all the cases studied, the near cancellation of the direct particle-hole channel is observed. This indicates that at least for the downfolding of the on-site interaction terms, methods beyond cRPA may be required.
We describe an efficient approximation for the electron-electron interaction in the determination of the low-energy effective interaction in multiband lattice systems. By using ideas for channel decomposition, form-factor expansion, and the truncated-unity technique we describe the interaction as arising from the nonlocal and orbital-dependent coupling of particle-hole and particle-particle bilinears formed by fields residing in the same one or two orbitals. This allows us to employ the constrained functional renormalization group (cfRG) with a suitable momentum and frequency discretization. The approach gives insights into the nonlocal screening of spin and charge interactions when bands away from the Fermi level are integrated out. Specifically, we compute the effective low-energy interactions in the low-energy target band of a three-band model with on-site and nonlocal bare interactions. We show that the cfRG adds important features to the effective target-band interaction that cannot be found using the constrained random phase approximation (cRPA).
We discuss different approximations for effective low-energy interactions in multiband models for weakly correlated electrons. In the study of Fermi-surface instabilities of the conduction band(s), the standard approximation consists only keeping those terms in the bare interactions that couple only to the conduction band(s), while corrections due to virtual excitations into bands away from the Fermi surface are typically neglected. Here, using a functional renormalization group approach, we present an improved truncation for the treatment of the effective interactions in the conduction band that keeps track of the generated three-particle interactions (six-point term) and hence allows one to include important aspects of these virtual interband excitations. Within a simplified two-patch treatment of the conduction band, we demonstrate that these corrections can have a rather strong effect in parts of the phase diagram by changing the critical scales for various orderings and the phase boundaries.
We check the accuracy of the constrained random phase approximation (cRPA) downfolding scheme by considering one-dimensional two- and three-orbital Hubbard models with a target band at the Fermi level and one or two screening bands away from the Fermi level. Using numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the full and downfolded model, we demonstrate that depending on filling, the effective interaction in the low-energy theory is either barely screened or antiscreened, in contrast to the cRPA prediction. This observation is explained by a functional renormalization group analysis, which shows that the cRPA contribution to the screening is to a large extent canceled by other diagrams in the direct particle-hole channel. We comment on the implications of this finding for the ab initio estimation of interaction parameters in low-energy descriptions of solids.
In a previous work [Phys. Rev. B 77, 085122 (2008)], a procedure for constructing low-energy models of electrons in solids was proposed. The procedure starts with dividing the Hilbert space into two subspaces: the low-energy part (``
d space'') and the rest of the space (``
r space''). The low-energy model is constructed for the
d space by eliminating the degrees of freedom of the
r space. The thus derived model contains the strength of electron correlation expressed by a partially screened Coulomb interaction, calculated in the constrained random-phase approximation (cRPA), where screening channels within the
d space,
Pd, are subtracted. One conceptual problem of this established downfolding method is that for entangled bands it is not clear how to cut out the
d space and how to distinguish
Pd from the total polarization. Here, we propose a simple procedure to overcome this difficulty. The
d space is defined to be an isolated set of bands generated from a set of maximally localized Wannier basis, which consequently defines
Pd. The
r subspace is constructed as the complementary space orthogonal to the
d subspace, resulting in two sets of completely disentangled bands. Using these disentangled bands, the effective parameters of the
d space are uniquely determined by the cRPA method. The method is successfully applied to
3d transition metals.