In superconducting phases, repulsive interactions between the electrons usually lead to higher-angular momentum Cooper pairing. Here, the authors employ the weak-coupling renormalization group approach to study unconventional superconducting phases emerging in the extended, repulsive Hubbard model on paradigmatic two-dimensional lattices. Among their findings are extended regions of chiral topological superconductivity on the square, triangular, and honeycomb lattices. They provide detailed superconducting phase diagrams as well as the coupling strengths that quantify the corresponding critical temperatures depending on the band-structure parameters, band filling, and interaction parameters. The importance of the resolution and accuracy of the numerical integration for the method is discussed and a way to higher numerical efficiency provided.
We study the phase diagram of the Hubbard model in the limit where
U, the onsite repulsive interaction, is much smaller than the bandwidth. We present an asymptotically exact expression for
Tc, the superconducting transition temperature, in terms of the correlation functions of the noninteracting system which is valid for arbitrary densities so long as the interactions are sufficiently small. Our strategy for computing
Tc involves first integrating out all degrees of freedom having energy higher than an unphysical initial cutoff ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{0}$. Then, the renormalization group (RG) flows of the resulting effective action are computed and
Tc is obtained by determining the scale below which the RG flows in the Cooper channel diverge. We prove that
Tc is independent of ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{0}$. Using this method, we find a variety of unconventional superconducting ground states in two- and three-dimensional lattice systems, and present explicit results for
Tc and pairing symmetries as a function of the electron concentration.
Abstract Using the singular-mode functional renormalization group method, we studied the doping-dependent phase diagram of the two-dimensional extended Hubbard model on square lattice. At half-filling, a variety of states strongly compete, including spin-density wave, charge-density wave, phase separation, as well as d -wave and s -wave superconductivity (SC). Upon electron doping, the system exhibits a strong preference for superconducting states. At slight dopings, the spin-density wave phase is strongly suppressed, and d -wave SC region expands into positive U , V region. At moderate dopings, a region of degenerated p -wave superconductivities emerge for positive U and negative V . Our results demonstrate how doping tunes the dominant fluctuations, suppressing density waves and stabilizing unconventional superconducting states in two dimensions.
Materials with strongly correlated electrons show a multitude of unconventional phenomena, such as superconductivity or magnetism, that cannot be explained in a single-particle picture and necessitate to take many-body effects into account. A route to explain the origin of these phenomena consists in constructing effective models for these materials that are then solved, often using numerical techniques. Paradigmatic models for two different classes of strongly correlated electron systems are investigated in this thesis: The Hubbard model is a paradigmatic model to describe the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) and the Kondo lattice model describes the low-energy physics in heavy fermion compounds. Both models are analyzed numerically using different variations of a quantum cluster technique, the variational cluster approximation (VCA). The first part focuses on the MIT, as it is investigated experimentally in quasi-two-dimensional charge-transfer salts. Its nature and associated universality class are still heavily discussed and both experiments and theoretical approaches come to different conclusions. In this thesis, the Mott transition is investigated on an anisotropic two-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling. By using a control parameter, which induces this anisotropy, strong evidence for Mott quantum criticality is found in weakly coupled Hubbard chains. The results at zero temperature show that the second-order critical end point Tc of the interaction-driven metal-insulator transition can be tuned down to zero at strong anisotropy. Further results for the antiferromagnetic phase suggest a similar picture and motivate adding the anisotropy as a new axis in the phase diagram to account for a low-temperature critical end point of the Mott transition. The second part of this thesis focuses on unconventional phases that emerge in a paradigmatic model for heavy fermion systems, the Kondo lattice model. Using the VCA, the two-dimensional Kondo lattice model is investigated in the paramagnetic phase as well as in phases with broken symmetry. An antiferromagnetic phase at weak coupling and a phase with Kondo-singlet formation at strong coupling are analyzed. Within the antiferromagnetically ordered region, two phases with different Fermi-surface topology, which are separated by a discontinuous transition, are identified. The model is also tested for s-wave superconductivity as found recently using dynamical mean-field theory, but no indications for robust local pairing are seen within VCA. Instead, nodal d-wave superconductivity is found and analyzed in a large range of couplings and electron fillings, and its interplay with antiferromagnetic order at weak coupling is discussed. This motivates further studies on extended models that might allow for a close comparison with experiments on heavy fermion systems. Understanding the formation of unconventional phases in strongly correlated electron systems is not only of fundamental interest, but it is also essential for designing new functional materials. Although the results of approximate cluster techniques have to be handled with care, the new aspects presented in this thesis pave the way for further investigations in this direction.
Charge ordering is often found in the phase diagram of unconventional superconductors in close proximity to the superconducting state. This has led to the suggestion that fluctuations of charge order can mediate superconducting pairing. While several mechanisms can lead to charge order, one common mechanism is the long-range Coulomb interaction, resulting in a Wigner crystal charge ordered state. For an electron density of 0.5 per site, we investigate the extended Hubbard model on the two-dimensional square lattice using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods. Our results show that the strength of pairing decreases with the nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction strength
V and remains weaker than the tendency of pairing for noninteracting electrons.
Two-dimensional density-matrix renormalization group method is employed to examine the ground-state phase diagram of the Hubbard model on the triangular lattice at half-filling. The calculation reveals two discontinuities in the double occupancy with increasing the repulsive Hubbard interaction
U at ${U}_{\mathrm{c}1}\ensuremath{\sim}7.8t$ and ${U}_{\mathrm{c}2}\ensuremath{\sim}9.9t$ (
t being the hopping integral), indicating that there are three phases separated by first-order transitions. The absence of any singularity in physical quantities for $0\ensuremath{\le}U<{U}_{\mathrm{c}1}$ implies a metallic phase in this regime. For
U>Uc2, the local spin density induced by an applied pinning magnetic field exhibits a three sublattice feature, which is compatible with the ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ N\'eel-ordered state realized in the limit of $U\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. For
Uc1<U<Uc2, a response to the applied pinning magnetic field is comparable to that in the metallic phase with a relatively large spin correlation length, but showing neither valence bond nor chiral magnetic order, which therefore resembles gapless spin liquid. However, the spin structure factor for the intermediate phase exhibits the maximum at the
K and ${\mathrm{K}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ points in the momentum space, which is not compatible to spin liquid with a large spinon Fermi surface. The calculation also finds that the pairing correlation function monotonically decreases with increasing
U and thus the superconductivity is unlikely in the intermediate phase.