We study the attractive Hubbard model within the dynamical mean-field theory, to elucidate how the pseudogap and superconductivity at strong attractive interaction are related to those found in the repulsive Hubbard model, and thereby to bridge cold fermions and cuprate high-temperature superconductors from a microscopic point of view. We propose that a unified understanding is obtained by investigating single-particle excitation dynamics, in which emergent and hidden fermions coupled to quasiparticles consistently account for the numerical results in both attractive and repulsive cases. In the attractive case, the quasiparticle dynamics is observable by virtually breaking a tightly bound pair, where we find two qualitatively different regions crossing over each other within the strong-coupling superconductivity phase. Among them, the region close to the critical temperature shares characteristic dynamics with the repulsive interaction case, where the normal and anomalous parts of the self-energy show strong low-energy peaks while they are hidden in the quasiparticle spectral weight. These prominent self-energy peaks are understood by the coupling of the quasiparticle to the hidden fermionic excitation, emergent from a strong-coupling effect. The pseudogap above the critical temperature is also accounted for by the same hidden fermion.
The finite-temperature phase diagram of the attractive Hubbard model is studied by means of the dynamical mean-field theory. We first consider the normal phase of the model by explicitly frustrating the superconducting ordering. In this case, we obtain a first-order pairing transition between a metallic phase and a paired phase formed by strongly coupled incoherent pairs. The transition line ends in a finite temperature critical point, but a crossover between two qualitatively different solutions still occurs at higher temperature. Comparing the superconducting- and the normal-phase solutions, we find that the superconducting instability always occurs before the pairing transition in the normal phase, i.e. T c > T pairing . Nevertheless, the high-temperature phase diagram at T > T c is still characterized by a crossover from a metallic phase to a preformed pair phase. We characterize this crossover by computing different observables that can be used to identify the pseudogap region, like the spin susceptibility, the specific heat and the single-particle spectral function.
The mechanism of fermionic pairing is the key to understanding various phenomena such as high-temperature superconductivity and the pseudogap phase in cuprate materials. We study the pair correlations in the attractive Hubbard model using ultracold fermions in a two-dimensional optical lattice. By combining the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and the compressibility equation of state, we extract the interacting pair correlation functions and deduce a characteristic length scale of pairs as a function of interaction and density filling. At sufficiently low filling and weak on-site interaction, we observe that the pair correlations extend over a few lattice sites even at temperatures above the superfluid transition temperature.
The attractive Hubbard model plays a paradigmatic role in the study of superconductivity (superfluidity) and has become directly realizable in ultracold atom experiments on optical lattices. However, the critical temperatures,
Tc's, remain lower than the lowest temperatures currently achievable in experiments. Here, we explore a possible route to enhance
Tc by introducing an additional next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) hopping,
t′, in a two-dimensional square lattice. We perform sign-problem-free determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations to compute response functions such as pairing correlation functions, superfluid density, and uniform spin susceptibility. Our results show that a judicious choice of
t′ can increase
Tc by up to
50% compared to the case with only nearest-neighbor hopping. In contrast, the preformed pairs temperature scale, named pairing temperature,
Tp, decreases with increasing
∣t′/t∣, which should represent a reduction of the pseudogap region, favoring a more BCS-like behavior at intermediate coupling. We further analyze the interacting density of states to characterize the transition from a pseudogap regime to a fully gapped superconducting state. These findings suggest that NNN hopping could be a viable route to increase
Tc to values closer to experimentally accessible temperature scales.
The two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model is studied in the weak-to-intermediate-coupling regime by employing a nonperturbative approach. It is shown that this approach is in quantitative agreement with Monte Carlo calculations for both single-particle and two-particle quantities. Both the density of states and the single-particle spectral weight show a pseudogap at the Fermi energy below some characteristic temperature
T∗, also in good agreement with quantum Monte Carlo calculations. The pseudogap is caused by critical pairing fluctuations in the low-temperature renormalized classical regime $(\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\omega}<{k}_{B}T)$ of the two-dimensional system. With increasing temperature the spectral weight fills in the pseudogap instead of closing it, and the pseudogap appears earlier in the density of states than in the spectral function. Small temperature changes around
T∗ can modify the spectral weight over frequency scales much larger than temperature. Several qualitative results for the s-wave case should remain true for d-wave superconductors.
We compute unbiased spectral functions of the two-dimensional Hubbard model by extrapolating Green functions, obtained from determinantal quantum Monte Carlo simulations, to the thermodynamic and continuous time limits. Our results clearly resolve the pseudogap at weak to intermediate coupling, originating from a momentum selective opening of the charge gap. A characteristic pseudogap temperature
T∗, determined consistently from the spectra and from the momentum dependence of the imaginary-time Green functions, is found to match the dynamical mean-field critical temperature, below which antiferromagnetic fluctuations become dominant. Our results identify a regime where pseudogap physics is within reach of experiments with cold fermions on optical lattices.