We present a novel route for attaining unconventional superconductivity in a strongly correlated system without doping. In a simple model of a correlated band insulator at half-filling we demonstrate, based on a generalization of the projected wavefunctions method, that superconductivity emerges for a broad range of model parameters when e-e interactions and the bare band-gap are both much larger than the kinetic energy, provided the system has sufficient frustration against the magnetic order. As the interactions are tuned, the superconducting phase appears sandwiched between the correlated band insulator followed by a paramagnetic metal on one side, and a ferrimagnetic metal, antiferromagnetic half-metal, and Mott insulator phases on the other side.
We consider the one-band Hubbard model on the square lattice by using variational and Green's function Monte Carlo methods, where the variational states contain Jastrow and backflow correlations on top of an uncorrelated wave function that includes BCS pairing and magnetic order. At half-filling, where the ground state is antiferromagnetically ordered for any value of the on-site interaction
U, we can identify a hidden critical point
UMott, above which a finite BCS pairing is stabilized in the wave function. The existence of this point is reminiscent of the Mott transition in the paramagnetic sector and determines a separation between a Slater insulator (at small values of
U), where magnetism induces a potential energy gain, and a Mott insulator (at large values of
U), where magnetic correlations drive a kinetic energy gain. Most importantly, the existence of
UMott has crucial consequences when doping the system: We observe a tendency for phase separation into hole-rich and hole-poor regions only when doping the Slater insulator, while the system is uniform by doping the Mott insulator. Superconducting correlations are clearly observed above
UMott, leading to the characteristic dome structure in doping. Furthermore, we show that the energy gain due to the presence of a finite BCS pairing above
UMott shifts from the potential to the kinetic sector by increasing the value of the Coulomb repulsion.
How superconductivity emerges in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic insulating state is a long-standing issue of strong correlation physics. We study the transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a superconductor by hole doping based on a bilayer generalization of a Hubbard model. The projector quantum Monte Carlo simulations are employed, which are sign problem free both at and away from half filling. An anisotropic Ising antiferromagnetic Mott insulating phase occurs at half filling, which is weakened by hole doping. Below a critical doping value, antiferromagnetism coexists with the singlet superconductivity, which is a pairing across each rung with an extended
s-wave symmetry. As doping further increases, the antiferromagnetic order vanishes, leaving only a superconducting phase. These results provide important information on how superconductivity appears upon doping the parent Mott-insulating state.
We show, by using a correlated Jastrow wave function and a mapping onto a classical model, that the two-dimensional Mott transition in a simple half-filled one-band model can be unconventional and very similar to the binding-unbinding Kosterlitz-Thouless transition of vortices and antivortices, here identified by empty and doubly occupied sites. Within this framework, electrons strongly interact with collective plasmon excitations that induce anomalous critical properties on both sides of the transition. In particular, the insulating phase is characterized by a singular power-law behavior in the photoemission spectrum, which can be continuously connected to the fully projected insulating state relevant to strongly correlated low-energy models.
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.
Recently a new phenomenological Hamiltonian was proposed to describe the superconducting cuprates in which correlations and on-site Coulomb repulsion are introduced by partial Gutzwiller projection. This Gossamer Hamiltonian has an exact ground state and differs from the t-J and Hubbard Hamiltonians in possessing a powerful attractive interaction among electrons responsible for Cooper pairing in the d-wave channel. It is a faithful description for a superconductor with strong on-site electronic repulsion. The superconducting tunneling gap remains intact and despite on-site repulsion. Near half-filling the Gossamer superconductor with strong repulsion has suppressed photoemission intensities and superfluid density, is unstable toward an antiferromagnetic insulator and possesses an incipient Mott-Hubbard gap. The Gossamer technique can be applied to metallic ground states thus possibly serving as an apt description of strongly correlated metals. Such a Gossamer metallic phase, just as the Gossamer superconducting one, becomes arbitrarily hard to differentiate from an insulator as one turns the Coulomb correlations up near half-filling. Both the metallic and superconducting states undergo a quantum phase transition to an antiferromagnetic insulator as one increases the on-site Coulomb repulsion. In the Gossamer model we reach the critical point at half-filling by fully projecting out the double occupancy. Such a critical point might be the Anderson Resonating Valence bond state.
We study the phase diagram of a one-dimensional Hubbard model where, in addition to the standard nearest-neighbor hopping t, we also include a next-to-nearest-neighbor hopping ${\mathit{t}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$. For strong enough on-site repulsion, this model has a transition at half filling from a magnetic insulator with gapless spin excitations at small ${\mathit{t}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$/t to a dimerized insulator with a spin gap at larger ${\mathit{t}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$/t. We show that upon doping this model exhibits quite interesting features, which include the presence of a metallic phase with a spin gap and dominant superconducting fluctuations, in spite of the repulsive interaction. More interestingly, we find that this superconducting phase can be reached upon hole doping the magnetic insulator. The connections between this model and the two chain models, recently object of intensive investigations, are also discussed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.