Dynamical properties are notoriously difficult to compute in numerical treatments of the Fermi-Hubbard model, especially in two spatial dimensions. However, they are essential in providing us with insight into some of the most important and less well-understood phases of the model, such as the pseudogap and strange metal phases at relatively high temperatures, or unconventional superconductivity at lower temperatures, away from the commensurate filling. Here, we use the numerical linked-cluster expansions to compute spin and charge optical conductivities of the model at different temperatures and strong interaction strengths via the exact real-time-dependent correlation functions of the current operators. We mitigate systematic errors associated with having a limited access to the long-time behavior of the correlators by introducing fits and allowing for non-zero Drude weights when appropriate. We compare our results to available data from optical lattice experiments and find that the Drude contributions can account for the theory-experiment gap in the DC spin conductivity of the model at half filling in the strong-coupling region. Our method helps paint a more complete picture of the conductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model and opens the door to studying dynamical properties of quantum lattice models in the thermodynamic limit.
Calculating transport properties presents a great challenge in the study of strongly correlated electrons, particularly in two dimensions where the non-local processes and the vertex corrections are important, but remain poorly understood. We study the Hubbard model on the square lattice in the strongly correlated regime. We use several complementary state-of-the-art numerical methods to disentangle the different effects and resolve the problem conclusively at high temperatures. In this regime, non-local correlations and long-distance quantum fluctuations have little impact, yet the vertex corrections survive and substantially suppress resistivity. Our study becomes particularly relevant in the light of recent experiments on optical lattices that provide realizations of the two-dimensional Hubbard model in a similar parameter regime.
We derive analytical expressions for the spectral moments of the dynamical response functions of the Hubbard model using the high-temperature series expansion. We consider generic dimension
d as well as the infinite-
d limit, arbitrary electron density
n, and both finite and infinite repulsion
U. We use moment-reconstruction methods to obtain the one-electron spectral function, the self-energy, and the optical conductivity. They are all smooth functions at high temperature and, at large
U, they are featureless with characteristic widths of the order of the lattice hopping parameter
t. In the infinite-
d limit, we compare the series expansion results with accurate numerical renormalization group and interaction expansion quantum Monte Carlo results. We find excellent agreement down to surprisingly low temperatures, throughout most of the bad-metal regime, which applies for $T\ensuremath{\gtrsim}(1\ensuremath{-}n)D$, the Brinkman-Rice scale. The resistivity increases linearly in
T at high temperature without saturation. This results from the
1/T behavior of the compressibility or kinetic energy, which play the role of the effective carrier number. In contrast, the scattering time (or diffusion constant) saturates at high
T. We find that $\ensuremath{\sigma}(n,T)\ensuremath{\approx}(1\ensuremath{-}n)\ensuremath{\sigma}(n=0,T)$ to a very good approximation for all
n, with $\ensuremath{\sigma}(n=0,T)\ensuremath{\propto}t/T$ at high temperatures. The saturation at small
n occurs due to a compensation between the density dependence of the effective number of carriers and that of the scattering time. The
T dependence of the resistivity displays a kneelike feature which signals a crossover to the intermediate-temperature regime where the diffusion constant (or scattering time) starts increasing with decreasing
T. At high temperatures, the thermopower obeys the Heikes formula, while the Wiedemann-Franz law is violated with the Lorenz number vanishing as
1/T2. The relevance of our calculations to experiments probing high-temperature transport in materials with strong electronic correlations or ultracold atomic gases in an optical lattice is briefly discussed.
Quantum simulations are quickly becoming an indispensable tool for studying particle transport in correlated lattice models. One of the central topics in the study of transport is bad-metal behavior, characterized by the direct-current resistivity linear in temperature. In the fermionic Hubbard model, optical conductivity has been studied extensively, and a recent optical lattice experiment demonstrated bad-metal behavior in qualitative agreement with theory. Far less is known about transport in the bosonic Hubbard model. We investigate the conductivity in the Bose-Hubbard model and focus on the regime of strong interactions and high temperatures. We use numerically exact calculations for small lattice sizes. At weak tunneling, we find multiple peaks in the optical conductivity that stem from the Hubbard bands present in the many-body spectrum. This feature slowly washes out as the tunneling rate gets stronger. At high temperature, we identify a regime of
T-linear resistivity, as expected. When the interactions are very strong, the leading inverse-temperature coefficient in conductivity is proportional to the tunneling amplitude. As the tunneling becomes stronger, this dependence takes quadratic form. At very strong coupling and half filling, we identify a separate linear resistivity regime at lower temperature, corresponding to the hard-core boson regime. Additionally, we unexpectedly observe that at half filling, in a big part of the phase diagram, conductivity is an increasing function of the coupling constant before it saturates at the hard-core-boson result. We explain this feature based on the analysis of the many-body energy spectrum and the contributions to conductivity of individual eigenstates of the system.
High-temperature bad-metal transport has been recently studied both theoretically and in experiments as one of the key signatures of strong electronic correlations. Here we use the dynamical mean field theory and its cluster extensions, as well as the finite-temperature Lanczos method to explore the influence of lattice frustration on the thermodynamic and transport properties of the Hubbard model at high temperatures. We consider the triangular and the square lattices at half-filling and at 15% hole doping. We find that for $T\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1.5t$ the self-energy becomes practically local, while the finite-size effects become small at lattice size $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4$ for both lattice types and doping levels. The vertex corrections to optical conductivity, which are significant on the square lattice even at high temperatures, contribute less on the triangular lattice. We find approximately linear temperature dependence of dc resistivity in doped Mott insulator for both types of lattices.
A self-consistent theory of both spin and charge fluctuations in the Hubbard model is presented. It is in quantitative agreement with Monte Carlo data at least up to intermediate coupling (U\ensuremath{\sim}8t). It includes both short-wavelength quantum renormalization effects, and long-wavelength thermal fluctuations, which can destroy long-range order in two dimensions. The last effect leads to a small energy scale, as often observed in high-temperature superconductors. The theory is conserving, satisfies the Pauli principle, and includes three-particle correlations necessary to account for the incipient Mott transition.