Identifying the fingerprints of the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition may be quite elusive in correlated metallic systems if the analysis is limited to the single particle level. However, our dynamical mean-field calculations demonstrate that the situation changes completely if the frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex functions is considered: The first nonperturbative precursors of the Mott physics are unambiguously identified well inside the metallic regime by the divergence of the local Bethe-Salpeter equation in the charge channel. In the low-temperature limit this occurs for interaction values where incoherent high-energy features emerge in the spectral function, while at high temperatures it is traceable up to the atomic limit.
Identifying the fingerprints of the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition may be quite elusive in correlated metallic systems if the analysis is limited to the single particle level. However, our dynamical mean-field calculations demonstrate that the situation changes completely if the frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex functions is considered: The first nonperturbative precursors of the Mott physics are unambiguously identified well inside the metallic regime by the divergence of the local Bethe-Salpeter equation in the charge channel. In the low-temperature limit this occurs for interaction values where incoherent high-energy features emerge in the spectral function, while at high temperatures it is traceable up to the atomic limit.
We thoroughly analyze the divergences of the irreducible vertex functions occurring in the charge channel of the half-filled Hubbard model in close proximity to the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT). In particular, by systematically performing dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) calculations on the two-particle level, we determine the location and the number of the vertex divergences across the whole coexistence region adjacent to the first-order metal-to-insulator transition. We find that the lines in the parameter space, along which the vertex divergences occur, display a qualitatively different shape in the coexisting metallic and insulating phase, which is also associated to an abrupt jump of the number of divergences across the MIT. Physically, the systematically larger number of divergences on the insulating side of the transition reflects the sudden suppression of local charge fluctuation at the MIT. Further, a systematic analysis of the results demonstrates that the number of divergence lines increases as a function of the inverse temperature $\ensuremath{\beta}={({k}_{\mathrm{B}}T)}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ by approaching the Mott transition in the zero-temperature limit. This makes it possible to identify the zero-temperature MIT as an accumulation point of an infinite number of vertex divergence lines, unveiling the highly nonperturbative nature of the underlying transition.
We analyze the highly nonperturbative regime surrounding the Mott-Hubbard metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) by means of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) calculations at the two-particle level. By extending the results of Sch\"afer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 246405 (2013)] we show the existence of infinitely many lines in the phase diagram of the Hubbard model where the local Bethe-Salpeter equations, and the related irreducible vertex functions, become singular in the charge as well as the particle-particle channel. By comparing our numerical data for the Hubbard model with analytical calculations for exactly solvable systems of increasing complexity [disordered binary mixture (BM), Falicov-Kimball (FK), and atomic limit (AL)], we have (i) identified two different kinds of divergence lines; (ii) classified them in terms of the frequency structure of the associated singular eigenvectors; and (iii) investigated their relation to the emergence of multiple branches in the Luttinger-Ward functional. In this way, we could distinguish the situations where the multiple divergences simply reflect the emergence of an underlying, single energy scale ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{*}$ below which perturbation theory is no longer applicable, from those where the breakdown of perturbation theory affects, not trivially, different energy regimes. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results on the theoretical understanding of the nonperturbative physics around the MIT and for future developments of many-body algorithms applicable in this regime.
In this work, we analyze in detail the occurrence of divergences in the irreducible vertex functions for one of the fundamental models of many-body physics: the Anderson impurity model (AIM). These divergences, a surprising hallmark of the breakdown of many-electron perturbation theory, have been recently observed in several contexts, including the dynamical mean-field solution of the Hubbard model. The numerical calculations for the AIM presented in this work, as well as their comparison with the corresponding results for the Hubbard model, allow us to clarify several open questions about the properties of vertex divergences in a particularly interesting context, the correlated metallic regime at low temperatures. Specifically, our analysis (i) rules out explicitly the transition to a Mott-insulating phase, but not the more general suppression of charge fluctuations (proposed in [O. Gunnarsson et al., Phys. Rev. B 93, 245102 (2016)]), as a necessary condition for the occurrence of vertex divergences, (ii) clarifies their relation with the underlying Kondo physics, and, eventually, (iii) individuates which divergences might also appear on the real-frequency axis in the limit of zero temperature, through the discovered scaling properties of the singular eigenvectors.
Strong repulsive interactions between electrons can lead to a Mott metal-insulator transition. The dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) explains the critical end point and the hysteresis region usually in terms of single-particle concepts, such as the spectral function and the quasiparticle weight. In this Letter, we reconsider the critical end point of the metal-insulator transition on the DMFT's two-particle level. We show that the relevant eigenvalue and eigenvector of the nonlocal Bethe-Salpeter kernel in the charge channel provide a unified picture of the hysteresis region and of the critical end point of the Mott transition. In particular, they simultaneously explain the thermodynamics of the hysteresis region and the iterative stability of the DMFT equations. This analysis paves the way for a deeper understanding of phase transitions in correlated materials.
We investigate finite-temperature precursors of Mottness in the repulsive Hubbard model above the spin-ordering temperature, using numerically exact determinant quantum Monte Carlo. We show that the finite-temperature crossover is accompanied by a pronounced suppression of charge fluctuations, despite the presence of a gapless single-particle spectra, demonstrating that Mottness first emerges via two-particle response in an anomalous metallic regime, before appearing in single-particle spectral functions. We further show that a gap formation in the density of states occurs through momentum-resolved redistribution of spectral weight across the Brillouin zone, that begins at the onset of anomalous metallic regime, rather than through gap formation in single-particle spectral functions at individual momenta. Upon doping, the anomalous-metallic regime generates transport and spectroscopic signatures characteristic of doped Mott insulators. This shows that the transport and spectroscopic anomalies of the doped Hubbard model do not require the presence of a fully formed Mott insulator at half-filling, but instead originate from the strong charge-response renormalization and spectral-weight redistribution that develop within the precursor anomalous metallic regime at half-filling.
While calculations and measurements of single-particle spectral properties often offer the most direct route to study correlated electron systems, the underlying physics may remain quite elusive, if information at higher particle levels is not explicitly included. Here, we present a comprehensive overview of the different approaches which have been recently developed and applied to identify the dominant two-particle scattering processes controlling the shape of the one-particle spectral functions and, in some cases, of the physical response of the system. In particular, we will discuss the underlying general idea, the common threads and the specific peculiarities of all the proposed approaches. While all of them rely on a selective analysis of the Schwinger-Dyson (or the Bethe-Salpeter) equation, the methodological differences originate from the specific two-particle vertex functions to be computed and decomposed. Finally, we illustrate the potential strength of these methodologies by means of their applications the two-dimensional Hubbard model, and we provide an outlook over the future perspective and developments of this route for understanding the physics of correlated electrons.