While second-order phase transitions always cause strong nonlocal fluctuations, their effect on spectral properties crucially depends on the dimensionality. For the important case of three dimensions, we show that the electron self-energy is well separable into a local dynamical part and static nonlocal contributions. In particular, our nonperturbative many-body calculations for the three-dimensional Hubbard model at different fillings demonstrate that the quasiparticle weight remains essentially momentum independent, including in the presence of overall large nonlocal corrections to the self-energy. Relying on this insight, we propose a ``space-time-separated'' scheme for many-body perturbation theory that is up to ten times more efficient than current implementations. Besides these far-reaching implications for state-of-the-art electronic structure schemes, our analysis will also provide guidance to the quest of going beyond them.
While second-order phase transitions always cause strong nonlocal fluctuations, their effect on spectral properties crucially depends on the dimensionality. For the important case of three dimensions, we show that the electron self-energy is well separable into a local dynamical part and static nonlocal contributions. In particular, our nonperturbative many-body calculations for the three-dimensional Hubbard model at different fillings demonstrate that the quasiparticle weight remains essentially momentum independent, including in the presence of overall large nonlocal corrections to the self-energy. Relying on this insight, we propose a ``space-time-separated'' scheme for many-body perturbation theory that is up to ten times more efficient than current implementations. Besides these far-reaching implications for state-of-the-art electronic structure schemes, our analysis will also provide guidance to the quest of going beyond them.
Besides the chemical constituents, it is the lattice geometry that controls the most important material properties. In many interesting compounds, the arrangement of elements leads to pronounced anisotropies, which reflect into a varying degree of quasi-two-dimensionality of their low-energy excitations. Here we start by classifying important families of correlated materials according to a simple measure for the tetragonal anisotropy of their ab initio electronic (band) structure. Second, we investigate the impact of a progressively larger anisotropy in driving the nonlocality of many-body effects. To this end, we tune the Hubbard model from isotropic cubic in three dimensions to the two-dimensional limit and analyze it using the dynamical vertex approximation. For sufficiently isotropic hoppings, we find the low-energy self-energy to be well separable into a static nonlocal and a dynamical local contribution. While the latter could potentially be obtained from dynamical mean-field approaches, we find the former to be nonnegligible in all cases. Further, by increasing the model's anisotropy, we quantify the degree of quasi-two-dimensionality which causes this ``space-time separation'' to break down. Our systematic analysis improves the general understanding of electronic correlations in anisotropic or layered materials and heterostructures and provides useful guidance for future realistic studies.
Away from half filling and above its Neel temperature, the three-dimensional Hubbard model is a paramagnetic metal with antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, where controlled momentum-resolved results have been lacking. Using connected-determinant diagrammatic Monte Carlo, we compute the momentum-resolved self-energy for n = 0.4-0.95, T/t = 0.05-0.33 and U/t = 4-8, and the full-zone spin susceptibility at twelve of these points, focusing on U/t = 4. At U/t = 4 and toward half filling the spin fluctuations become strong: for n = 0.7-0.9 at T/t = 0.14 they enhance the susceptibility peak up to sevenfold and raise the momentum-dependent part of the scattering rate to four to five times its second-order value. They are driven by an effective spin interaction screened to about 2U/3 and nearly uniform over the zone. Yet the peak height is set by the slightly smaller value of this interaction at the peak wave vector, and near magnetic order this small difference changes the height by a large factor. Two-particle self-consistent theory reproduces the peak because its sum rule fixes its single constant interaction near this value, but for n = 0.7-0.9 at T/t = 0.14 its self-energy overestimates the local scattering rate and underestimates the momentum-dependent part. Though strong, the fluctuations are short ranged, with a correlation length of at most about two lattice spacings, and for n = 0.7-0.9 and T/t >= 0.14 the scattering rate near the Fermi surface varies by at most about 1% at fixed band energy, without hot spots. At U/t = 4 dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) reproduces the local scattering rate and quasiparticle weight within a few percent, and the nonlocal part it misses is approximately a function of the band energy. Strong spin fluctuations thus coexist with nearly isotropic quasiparticles, and the results provide a benchmark for extensions of DMFT and for spin-fluctuation theories.
In strongly correlated materials, quantum fluctuations taking place at the level of atomic sites play a central role. These local processes are captured nonperturbatively in dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). Nonlocal mechanisms, however, are also suspected to be essential for the proper description of some of these materials, including the well-known high-temperature cuprate superconductors and the more exotic systems of atoms adsorbed on semiconducting surfaces.In this thesis, the effect of nonlocal, potentially long-range fluctuations beyond the DMFT framework is investigated from two angles.First, long-ranged interactions in adatom systems, computed from first principles within the constrained random-phase approximation (cRPA), are treated within the extended DMFT (EDMFT) framework and its combination with the diagrammatic GW method (GW +EDMFT). They are shown to explain some material trends observed in these compounds. In addition, thanks to the spatial and temporal information delivered by GW+EDMFT, they solve existing puzzles raised by different experimental conclusions drawn from different probes.Second, a new approach to the Hubbard model including nonlocal correlation effects is proposed. Formally based on the local expansion of the triply-irreducible functional, this approach, dubbed TRILEX, approximates the renormalized three-leg electron-boson vertex by a local but frequency-dependent vertex computed from an impurity model with retarded density-density and spin-spin interactions. This local vertex is used to construct frequency- and momentum-dependent self-energies capturing nonlocal correlation effects. By construction, this method reconciles two theoretical pictures of cuprate superconductors, namely the spin fluctuation theory at weak interaction strengths and the doped-Mott-insulator picture at strong coupling.This novel approach is applied to the single-band Hubbard model. It is shown to reduce to DMFT at strong coupling and high temperatures, and to fluctuation-exchange theories at weak coupling, while substantial deviations from both limits are observed at intermediate coupling. There, upon doping, antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations are observed to lead to a momentum-differentiated spectral intensity on the Fermi surface, which is reminiscent of the formation of Fermi arcs in photoemission measurements on cuprate superconductors.These two methodological developments are intrinsically linked to algorithmic aspects which are reviewed in the last part of this work. In particular, an open-source library dedicated to massively parallel computations in the field of quantum many-body physics, TRIQS, is presented, with a focus on error estimation through the binning and jackknife methods. The hybridization-expansion continuous-time quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm in the segment picture -- central to the TRILEX method -- and its state-of-the-art implementation are explained. Finally, as a further illustration, a new lightweight method relying on this algorithm and designed for realistic systems, the combined screened-exchange and dynamical DMFT method (SEx+DDMFT), is presented together with an application to the BaCo2As2 compound.
We present a fully self-consistent combined GW and dynamical mean field (DMFT) study of the extended two-dimensional Hubbard model. The inclusion of the local dynamical vertex stemming from the DMFT self-energy and polarization is shown to cure the known problems of self-consistent GW. We calculate momentum-resolved spectral functions, two-particle polarizations, and electron-loss spectra, as well as the effective dynamical interaction induced by nonlocal screening. The momentum-dependence introduced by GW into the extended DMFT description leads to a narrowing of the quasiparticle width and more pronounced Hubbard bands in the metallic regime as one approaches the charge-ordering transition. It further affects the shape of collective modes, giving rise to dispersive plasmon-like long-wavelength and stripe modes.
A technique allowing for a perturbative treatment of nonlocal corrections to the single-site dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) in finite dimensions is developed. It is based on the observation that in the case of strong electron correlation the one-electron Green's function is strongly spatially damped so that its intersite matrix elements may be considered as small perturbations. Because the non-local corrections are at least quadratic in these matrix elements, DMFT in such cases may be a very accurate approximation in dimensions d = 1-3. This observation provides a rigorous justification for the application of DMFT to physical systems. Furthermore, the technique allows for a systematic evaluation of the nonlocal corrections. This is illustrated with the calculation of the magnetic short range order parameter for nearest neighbor spins in the half filled Hubbard model on the square lattice in its insulating phase which exhibits an excellent agreement with the results of a recent cluster approach.As a second example we study the lowest order correction to the DMFT self-energy and its influence on the local density of states.
In the general frame of a modified many-body perturbation theory, the single-band Hubbard model is treated in the limit of weak electron-electron interaction. In this modification the decomposition of the Hamiltonian into an effective free system and an effective perturbation is rearranged iteratively in each order of the formalism, resulting in a successive reduction of the interaction part. In comparison with conventional perturbation techniques, this means an extended range of validity. Imposing thermodynamic self-consistency, we calculate the wave-vector-dependent electronic self-energy up to second order and analyze the influence of the Coulomb correlations. Several well-known physical properties of the Hubbard model are recovered in characteristic single-particle quantities. Therefore, the effect of the band occupation n and the electron-electron repulsion U on spectral densities, band structures, densities of states, magnetization, etc. is investigated in detail. Some of the most remarkable results are: first, a splitting of the free Bloch band into two quasiparticle subbands when the coupling strength reaches moderate values. These subbands are linked by a small damping-induced background in the density of states and are separated roughly by an energy of the order of U. In addition, the upper subband is shifted to higher energies in the spectrum proportionally to U while the lower one is nearly fixed. Second, we found a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase diagram that has a critical coupling strength Uc and exhibits strong indications of a lower critical occupation number nc. There is no spontaneous magnetization in the system for parameters smaller than these values. Compared with the Stoner model, one thus obtains striking improvements. In many cases our conclusions for the weak-coupling limit are qualitatively in good agreement with well-known results in the strong-correlation regime.