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arXiv:2207.08008 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Mott transition, Widom line, and pseudogap in the half-filled triangular lattice Hubbard model

P.-O. Downey, Olivier Gingras, Jérôme Fournier, Charles-David Hébert, M. Charlebois, A.–M. S. Tremblay

Published Mar 29, 2023• 22 citations
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Abstract

The Mott transition is observed experimentally in materials that are magnetically frustrated so that long-range order does not hide the Mott transition at finite temperature. The Hubbard model on the triangular lattice at half filling is a paradigmatic model to study the interplay of interactions and frustration on the normal-state phase diagram. We use the dynamical cluster approximation with continuous-time auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo to solve this model for 1-, 4-, 6-, 12-, and 16-site clusters with detailed analysis performed for the 6-site cluster. We show that (a) for every cluster there is an inflection point in the double occupancy as a function of interaction, defining a Widom line that extends above the critical point of the first-order Mott transition; (b) the presence of this line and the cluster size dependence argue for the observability of the Mott transition at finite temperature in the thermodynamic limit; and (c) the loss of spectral weight in the metal-to-Mott-insulator transition as a function of temperature and for strong interactions is momentum dependent, the hallmark of a pseudogap. That pseudogap spans a large region of the phase diagram near the Mott transition.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.107.125159

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The Mott transition is observed experimentally in materials that are magnetically frustrated so that long-range order does not hide the Mott transition at finite temperature. The Hubbard model on the triangular lattice at half filling is a paradigmatic model to study the interplay of interactions and frustration on the normal-state phase diagram. We use the dynamical cluster approximation with continuous-time auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo to solve this model for 1-, 4-, 6-, 12-, and 16-site clusters with detailed analysis performed for the 6-site cluster. We show that (a) for every cluster there is an inflection point in the double occupancy as a function of interaction, defining a Widom line that extends above the critical point of the first-order Mott transition; (b) the presence of this line and the cluster size dependence argue for the observability of the Mott transition at finite temperature in the thermodynamic limit; and (c) the loss of spectral weight in the metal-to-Mott-insulator transition as a function of temperature and for strong interactions is momentum dependent, the hallmark of a pseudogap. That pseudogap spans a large region of the phase diagram near the Mott transition.
The interaction-driven Mott transition in the half-filled Hubbard model is a first-order phase transition that terminates at a critical point (Tc,Uc)(T_\mathrm{c},U_\mathrm{c})(Tc​,Uc​) in the temperature-interaction plane T−UT-UT−U. A number of crossovers occur along lines that extend for some range above (Tc,Uc)(T_\mathrm{c},U_\mathrm{c})(Tc​,Uc​). Asymptotically close to (Tc,Uc)(T_\mathrm{c},U_\mathrm{c})(Tc​,Uc​), these lines coalesce into the so-called Widom line. The existence of (Tc,Uc)(T_\mathrm{c},U_\mathrm{c})(Tc​,Uc​) and of the associated crossovers becomes unclear when long-wavelength fluctuations or long-range order occur above (Tc,Uc)(T_\mathrm{c},U_\mathrm{c})(Tc​,Uc​). We study this problem using continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo methods as impurity solvers for both Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT) and Cellular Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (CDMFT). We contrast the cases of the square lattice, where antiferromagnetic fluctuations dominate in the vicinity of the Mott transition, and the triangular lattice where they do not. The inflexion points and maxima found near the Widom line for the square lattice can serve as proxy for the triangular lattice case. But the only crossover observable in all cases at sufficiently high temperature is that associated with the opening of the Mott gap. The same physics also controls an analog crossover in the resistivity called the "Quantum Widom line".
The experimentally established phase diagram of the half-filled Hubbard model features the existence of three distinct finite-temperature regimes, separated by extended crossover regions. A number of crossover lines can be defined to span those regions, which we explore in quantitative detail within the framework of dynamical mean-field theory. Most significantly, the high-temperature crossover between the bad metal and Mott-insulator regimes displays a number of phenomena marking the gradual development of the Mott insulating state. We discuss the quantum critical scaling behavior found in this regime, and propose methods to facilitate its possible experimental observation. We also introduce the concept of quantum Widom lines and present a detailed discussion that highlights its physical meaning when used in the context of quantum-phase transitions.
It has been reported that upon doping a Mott insulator, there can be a crossover to a pseudogapped metallic phase followed by a first-order transition to another thermodynamically stable metallic phase. We call this first-order metal-metal transition the Sordi transition. It was argued that the initial reports of Sordi transitions at finite temperature could be explained by finite size effects and biases related to the model and method used. In this work, we report the Sordi transition on larger clusters at finite temperature on a triangular lattice, where long-range antiferromagnetic fluctuations are frustrated, using a different method, the dynamical cluster approximation instead of the cellular dynamical mean-field theory. This demonstrates that this first-order transition is a directly observable transition in doped Mott insulators and that it is relevant for experiments on candidate spin-liquid organic materials.
For doped two-dimensional Mott insulators in their normal state, the challenge is to understand the evolution from a conventional metal at high doping to a strongly correlated metal near the Mott insulator at zero doping. To this end, we solve the cellular dynamical mean-field equations for the two-dimensional Hubbard model using a plaquette as the reference quantum impurity model and continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method as impurity solver. The normal-state phase diagram as a function of interaction strength UUU, temperature TTT, and filling nnn shows that, upon increasing nnn toward the Mott insulator, there is a surface of first-order transition between two metals at nonzero doping. That surface ends at a finite temperature critical line originating at the half-filled Mott critical point. Associated with this transition, there is a maximum in scattering rate as well as thermodynamic signatures. These findings suggest a new scenario for the normal-state phase diagram of the high temperature superconductors. The criticality surmised in these systems can originate not from a T === 0 quantum critical point, nor from the proximity of a long-range ordered phase, but from a low temperature transition between two types of metals at finite doping. The influence of Mott physics therefore extends well beyond half-filling.
Abstract We investigate a metal–insulator Mott transition in the half‐filled Hubbard model on the triangular lattice. In this study, we make use of the path‐integral renormalization group method with an iteration and truncation scheme proposed recently, which allows us to access the competing ground states around the transition point. We find for a cluster with 36 sites that as the Hubbard interaction U increases, the paramagnetic metallic (PM) state undergoes a metal–insulator phase transition to a nonmagnetic insulating (NMI) state at Uc∼7.4tU_{\rm c} \sim 7.4tUc​∼7.4t , where t is the transfer integral. A detailed analysis around the transition point shows that the Mott transition is of first order.
We employ dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) with a quantum Monte Carlo atomic solver to investigate the finite-temperature Mott transition in the Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor hopping on a triangular lattice at half-filling. We estimate the value of the critical interaction to be ${U}_{c}=12.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5$ in units of the hopping amplitude ttt through the evolution of the magnetic moment, spectral function, internal energy, and specific heat as the interaction UUU and temperature TTT are varied. This work also presents a comparison between DMFT and finite-size determinant quantum Monte Carlo calculations and a discussion of the advantages and limitations of both methods.