We study the half-filled Hubbard model on a one-parameter family of vortex-full square lattices ranging from the isotropic case to weakly coupled Hubbard dimers. The ground-state phase diagram consists of four phases: A semimetal and a band insulator which are connected to the weak-coupling limit, and a magnetically ordered N\'eel phase and a valence bond solid (VBS) which are linked to the strong-coupling Mott limit. The phase diagram is obtained by quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and continuous unitary transformations (CUTs). The CUT is performed in a two-step process: Nonperturbative graph-based CUTs are used in the Mott insulating phase to integrate out charge fluctuations. The resulting effective spin model is tackled by perturbative CUTs about the isolated dimer limit yielding the breakdown of the VBS by triplon condensation. We find three scenarios when varying the interaction for a fixed anisotropy of hopping amplitudes: (i) one direct phase transition from N\'eel to semimetal, (ii) two phase transitions VBS to N\'eel and N\'eel to semimetal, or (iii) a smooth crossover from VBS to the band insulator. Our results are consistent with the absence of spin-liquid phases in the whole phase diagram.
We study the half-filled Hubbard model on a one-parameter family of vortex-full square lattices ranging from the isotropic case to weakly coupled Hubbard dimers. The ground-state phase diagram consists of four phases: A semimetal and a band insulator which are connected to the weak-coupling limit, and a magnetically ordered N'eel phase and a valence bond solid (VBS) which are linked to the strong-coupling Mott limit. The phase diagram is obtained by quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and continuous unitary transformations (CUTs). The CUT is performed in a two-step process: Nonperturbative graph-based CUTs are used in the Mott insulating phase to integrate out charge fluctuations. The resulting effective spin model is tackled by perturbative CUTs about the isolated dimer limit yielding the breakdown of the VBS by triplon condensation. We find three scenarios when varying the interaction for a fixed anisotropy of hopping amplitudes: (i) one direct phase transition from N'eel to semimetal, (ii) two phase transitions VBS to N'eel and N'eel to semimetal, or (iii) a smooth crossover from VBS to the band insulator. Our results are consistent with the absence of spin-liquid phases in the whole phase diagram.
The cluster slave-spin method is employed to investigate systematically the ground state properties of the Hubbard model on a square lattice with doping $\ensuremath{\delta}$ and coupling strength U being its parameters. At half-filling, a relation between the staggered magnetization M and the antiferromagnetic (AFM) gap ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{\text{AFM}}$ is established in the small U limit to compare with that from the Hartree-Fock theory, and a first-order metal-insulator Mott transition in the paramagnetic state is substantiated, which is characterized by discontinuities and hystereses at UMott=10t. The interaction Uc for the crossover in the AFM state, separating the weak- and strong-coupling regimes, is found to remain almost unchanged with large dopings, and smaller than UMott at half-filling because of long range AFM correlations. Finally, an overall phase diagram in the $U\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}$ plane is presented, which is composed of four regimes: the AFM insulator at half-filling, the AFM metal with the compressibility $\ensuremath{\kappa}>0$ or $\ensuremath{\kappa}<0$, and the paramagnetic metal, as well as three phase transitions: (i) From the AFM metal to the paramagnetic metal, (ii) between the AFM metal phases with positive and negative $\ensuremath{\kappa}$, and (iii) separating the AFM insulating phase at $\ensuremath{\delta}=0$ from the AFM metal phase for $\ensuremath{\delta}>0$.
Abstract We present a T = 0 K renormalization group (RG) phase diagram for the electronic Hubbard model in two dimensions on the square lattice at half filling. The RG procedure treats quantum fluctuations in the single particle occupation number nonperturbatively via the unitarily decoupling of one electronic state at every RG step. The resulting phase diagram thus possesses the quantum fluctuation energy scale (ω) as one of its axes. A relation is derived between ω and the effective temperature scale upto which gapless, as well as emergent gapped phases can be obtained. We find that the normal and insulating phases of the half-filled Hubbard model correspond, for any on-site repulsion, to a marginal Fermi liquid normal phase and a topologically-ordered gapped Mott insulating liquid respectively. The marginal Fermi liquid is found to arise from singular forward scattering in directions normal to the nested Fermi surface, while singular backscattering events lead to Mott liquid state. The transition between these two phases involves passage through a pseudogapped phase bookended by Fermi surface topology-changing Lifshitz transitions. The pseudogap phase is observed to arise from the electronic differentiation encoded within the nested Fermi surface, and involves the gradual gapping of the Fermi surface from antinodes to nodes via charge and spin excitations that are mutually entangled. We obtain effective Hamiltonians for various phases, as well as wavefunctions for the low-energy many-body eigenstates of the Mott liquid. Benchmarking of the ground-state energy per particle and the double-occupancy fraction for the Mott liquid against existing numerical results yields excellent agreement. Presence of a Néel ordering symmetry-breaking perturbation in the RG leads to an antiferromagnetic spin-ordered charge insulating Mott state. Our results thus offer novel insights on a variety of aspects of the Mott–Hubbard problem, and can be extended to the doped system.
The interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom in strongly correlated fermionic systems, in particular of Dirac fermions, is a long-standing problem in condensed matter physics. We investigate the competing orders in the half-filled SU(2N) Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice, which can be accurately realized in optical lattices with ultracold large-spin alkaline-earth fermions. Employing large-scale projector determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we have explored quantum phase transitions from the gapless Dirac semimetals to the gapped Mott insulating phases in the SU(4) and SU(6) cases. Both of these Mott insulating states are found to be columnar valence bond solid (cVBS) and to be absent of the antiferromagnetic N\'eel ordering and the loop current ordering. Inside the cVBS phases, the dimer ordering is enhanced by increasing fermion components and behaves nonmonotonically as the interaction strength increases. Although the transitions generally should be of first order due to a cubic invariance possessed by the cVBS order, the coupling to gapless Dirac fermions can soften the transitions to second order through a nonanalytic term in the free energy. Our simulations provide important guidance for the experimental explorations of novel states of matter with ultracold alkaline-earth fermions.
We investigate the ionic Hubbard model (IHM) at half-filling in the limit of strong correlations and large ionic potential. The low-energy effective Hamiltonian in this limit, obtained by a similarity transformation, is a modified $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model with effective second-neighbor hopping terms. We explore the possibilities of d-wave pairing and extended s-wave pairing superconducting (SC) phases on a two-dimensional square lattice at zero temperature within a Gutzwiller projected renormalized mean-field theory. In the sector of solutions that forbid spin-ordering, the system shows a finite nonzero d-wave as well as extended s-wave pairing amplitude for $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\sim}U\ensuremath{\gg}t$. The width of the superconducting phase in $U\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ regime shrinks with increase in U and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$, though the extended s-wave pairing phase is higher in energy than the d-wave pairing superconducting phase. But in a spin-resolved renormalized mean-field calculation, which allows for an antiferromagnetic (AF) order along with the d-wave or extended s-wave pairing, the SC phase is no longer viable and the system shows a direct transition from an AF ordered phase to a paramagnetic band insulator. Except for a thin sliver of a half-metallic AF phase close to the AF transition point, most of the AF ordered phase is a Mott insulator. We benchmarked the AF Mott insulator to band insulator transition within the Gutzwiller projected renormalized mean-field theory against the dynamical mean-field theory solved using continuous time quantum Monte Carlo. Our work suggests that the ground-state phase diagram of the IHM at half-filling in the limit of extreme correlations does not have any SC phase. The SC phase seen in the paramagnetic sector is a metastable phase, being higher in energy than the AF Mott insulator phase.
We perform large-scale projector determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations to study the insulating states of the half-filled SU(6) Hubbard model on the square lattice. The transition from the antiferromagnetic state to the valence bond solid state occurs as increasing the Hubbard U. In contrast, in the SU(2) and SU(4) cases antiferromagnetism persists throughout the entire interaction range. In the SU(6) case, antiferromagnetism starts to develop in the weak interacting regime based on the Slater mechanism of Fermi surface nesting. As U passes a crossover value ${U}^{*}/t\ensuremath{\approx}9$, the single-particle gap scales linearly with U, marking the onset of Mott physics. In the Mott regime, antiferromagnetism becomes to be suppressed as U increases and vanishes after U passes the critical value ${U}_{\mathrm{AF},\mathrm{c}}/t=13.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$. The critical exponents are obtained via critical scalings as ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{AF}}=0.60\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$ and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{\mathrm{AF}}=0.44\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03$. As U further increases, the valence bond solid ordering appears exhibiting the anomalous dimension ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{\mathrm{VBS}}=0.98\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$.
Employing a combination of functional renormalization group calculations and projective determinantal quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we examine the Hubbard model on the square lattice bilayer at half filling. From this combined analysis, we obtain a comprehensive account of the ground-state phase diagram with respect to the extent of the system's metallic and (antiferromagnetically ordered) Mott-insulating as well as band-insulating regions. By means of an unbiased functional renormalization group approach, we exhibit the antiferromagnetic Mott-insulating state as the relevant instability of the free metallic state, induced by any weak finite on-site repulsion. Upon performing a careful analysis of the quantum Monte Carlo data, we resolve the difficulty of identifying this antiferromagnetic ground state for finite interlayer hopping in the weak-coupling regime, where nonmonotonic finite-size corrections are shown to relate to the two-sheeted Fermi surface structure of the metallic phase. On the other hand, quantum Monte Carlo simulations are well suited to identify the transition between the Mott-insulating phase and the band insulator in the intermediate-to-strong coupling regime. Here, we compare our numerical findings to indications for the transition region obtained from the functional renormalization group procedure.