, and a heavy pair, which can only move due to spin exchange processes and turns into a flat band in the Ising limit of the model. Understanding the pairing mechanism can on the one hand pave the way to boosting binding energies in related models, and on the other hand enable insights into the intricate competition of various phases of matter in strongly correlated electron systems.

DOI: 10.3929/ethz-b-000646549

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Dichotomy of heavy and light pairs of holes in the t−J model

Annabelle Bohrdt, Eugene Demler, Fabian Grusdt

A key step in unraveling the mysteries of materials exhibiting unconventional superconductivity is to understand the underlying pairing mechanism. While it is widely agreed upon that the pairing glue in many of these systems originates from antiferromagnetic spin correlations, a microscopic description of pairs of charge carriers remains lacking. Here we use state-of-the art numerical methods to probe the internal structure and dynamical properties of pairs of charge carriers in quantum antiferromagnets in four-legged cylinders. Exploiting the full momentum resolution in our simulations, we are able to distinguish two qualitatively different types of bound states: a highly mobile, meta-stable pair, which has a dispersion proportional to the hole hopping t, and a heavy pair, which can only move due to spin exchange processes and turns into a flat band in the Ising limit of the model. Understanding the pairing mechanism can on the one hand pave the way to boosting binding energies in related models, and on the other hand enable insights into the intricate competition of various phases of matter in strongly correlated electron systems.A key step in unraveling the mysteries of materials exhibiting unconventional superconductivity is to understand the underlying pairing mechanism. While it is widely agreed upon that the pairing glue in many of these systems originates from antiferromagnetic spin correlations, a microscopic description of pairs of charge carriers remains lacking. Here we use state-of-the art numerical methods to probe the internal structure and dynamical properties of pairs of charge carriers in quantum antiferromagnets in four-legged cylinders. Exploiting the full momentum resolution in our simulations, we are able to distinguish two qualitatively different types of bound states: a highly mobile, meta-stable pair, which has a dispersion proportional to the hole hopping t, and a heavy pair, which can only move due to spin exchange processes and turns into a flat band in the Ising limit of the model. Understanding the pairing mechanism can on the one hand pave the way to boosting binding energies in related models, and on the other hand enable insights into the intricate competition of various phases of matter in strongly correlated electron systems.

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Pairing of holes by confining strings in antiferromagnets

Fabian Grusdt, Eugene Demler, Annabelle Bohrdt

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Jingyu Zhao, Shuai A. Chen, Hao-Kai Zhang +1 more

A single-hole ground state Ansatz for the two-dimensional t-J model has been recently studied by the variational Monte Carlo (VMC) method.Such a doped hole behaves like a "twisted" non-Landau quasiparticle characterized by an emergent quantum number in agreement with exact numerics.In this work, we further investigate the ground state of two holes by VMC.It is found that the two holes strongly attract each other to form a pairing state with a new quantum number the same as obtained by the numerical exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations.A unique feature of this pairing state is a dichotomy in the pairing symmetry, i.e., a d wave in terms of the electron c operators and an s wave in terms of the new quasiparticles, as explicitly illustrated in the ground state wave function.A similar VMC study of a two-hole wave function for the t-J two-leg ladder also yields a good agreement with the DMRG result.We demonstrate that the pairing mechanism responsible for the strong binding here is not due to the long-range antiferromagnetic order nor the resonating-valence-bound pairing in the spin background but is the consequence of the quantum phase strings created by the hopping of holes.The resulting spin-current pattern mediating the pairing force is explicitly illustrated in the VMC calculation.Physical implications to superconductivity at finite doping are also discussed.A single-hole ground state Ansatz for the two-dimensional t-J model has been recently studied by the variational Monte Carlo (VMC) method.Such a doped hole behaves like a "twisted" non-Landau quasiparticle characterized by an emergent quantum number in agreement with exact numerics.In this work, we further investigate the ground state of two holes by VMC.It is found that the two holes strongly attract each other to form a pairing state with a new quantum number the same as obtained by the numerical exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations.A unique feature of this pairing state is a dichotomy in the pairing symmetry, i.e., a d wave in terms of the electron c operators and an s wave in terms of the new quasiparticles, as explicitly illustrated in the ground state wave function.A similar VMC study of a two-hole wave function for the t-J two-leg ladder also yields a good agreement with the DMRG result.We demonstrate that the pairing mechanism responsible for the strong binding here is not due to the long-range antiferromagnetic order nor the resonating-valence-bound pairing in the spin background but is the consequence of the quantum phase strings created by the hopping of holes.The resulting spin-current pattern mediating the pairing force is explicitly illustrated in the VMC calculation.Physical implications to superconductivity at finite doping are also discussed.

arXiv:2106.14898Physical Review XMar 31, 202223 citations

Dichotomy of heavy and light pairs of holes in the

t-J

model

t

t-J

model and discover two coupled branches of hole pairs emerging at low energies in the largely unexplored two-particle spectrum. As spin anisotropy is tuned from the Ising limit to the

SU(2)

-symmetric Heisenberg regime, the lowest

d

-wave pair evolves from a single bipolaronic branch into two hybridized branches separated by an avoided crossing. We explain this behaviour using an effective two-channel model involving a tightly bound bipolaronic state and a second channel associated with two magnetic polarons. The model reproduces the qualitative low-energy spectra and implies near-resonant

d

-wave interactions in the

SU(2)

-symmetric

t-J

model, consistent with proximity to an emergent Feshbach-type resonance. To probe these predictions experimentally, we propose a Raman spectroscopy scheme for the attractive Hubbard model that can be directly implemented using ultracold atoms in optical lattices. Our work establishes two-particle spectroscopy, beyond single-particle Green's functions, as a powerful tool for revealing the microscopic origins of unconventional superconductivity.