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arXiv:2501.18325 · Physical Review Research

Disentangling real space fluctuations: The diagnostics of metal-insulator transitions beyond single-particle spectral functions

Michael Meixner, Marcel Krämer, Nils Wentzell, Pietro M. Bonetti, Sabine Andergassen, Alessandro Toschi, Thomas Schäfer

Published Jun 18, 2025• 1 citation
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Abstract

The destruction of metallicity due to the mutual Coulomb interaction of quasiparticles gives rise to fascinating phenomena of solid state physics such as the Mott metal-insulator transition and pseudogap. A key observable characterizing their occurrences is the single-particle spectral function, determined by the fermionic self-energy. In this paper, we investigate in detail how real space fluctuations are responsible for a self-energy that drives the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition. To this aim, we first introduce a real space fluctuation diagnostics approach to the Hedin equation, which connects the fermion-boson coupling vertex λ to the self-energy Σ . Second, by using cellular dynamical mean-field theory calculations, we unambiguously identify nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic excitations as the leading physical processes responsible for the destruction of metallicity across the transition.

DOI
10.1103/1nt5-swsk

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•Jan 1, 2026•0 citations
The destruction of metallicity due to the mutual Coulomb interaction of quasiparticles gives rise to fascinating phenomena of solid state physics such as the Mott metal-insulator transition and pseudogap. A key observable characterizing their occurrences is the single-particle spectral function, determined by the fermionic self-energy. In this paper, we investigate in detail how real space fluctuations are responsible for a self-energy that drives the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition. To this aim, we first introduce a real space fluctuation diagnostics approach to the Hedin equation, which connects the fermion-boson coupling vertex λ to the self-energy Σ . Second, by using cellular dynamical mean-field theory calculations, we unambiguously identify nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic excitations as the leading physical processes responsible for the destruction of metallicity across the transition.
Identifying the fingerprints of the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition may be quite elusive in correlated metallic systems if the analysis is limited to the single particle level. However, our dynamical mean-field calculations demonstrate that the situation changes completely if the frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex functions is considered: The first nonperturbative precursors of the Mott physics are unambiguously identified well inside the metallic regime by the divergence of the local Bethe-Salpeter equation in the charge channel. In the low-temperature limit this occurs for interaction values where incoherent high-energy features emerge in the spectral function, while at high temperatures it is traceable up to the atomic limit.
We generalize the dynamical-mean field (DMFT) approximation by including into the DMFT equations some length scale $\ensuremath{\xi}$ via a momentum dependent external self-energy ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathbf{k}}$. This external self-energy describes nonlocal dynamical correlations induced by the short-ranged collective spin density wave--like antiferromagnetic spin (or the charge density wave--like charge) fluctuations. At high enough temperatures these fluctuations can be viewed as a quenched Gaussian random field with a finite correlation length. This generalized $\mathrm{DMFT}+{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathbf{k}}$ approach is used for the numerical solution of the weakly doped one-band Hubbard model with repulsive Coulomb interaction on a square lattice with the nearest and the next nearest neighbor hopping. The effective single impurity problem in this generalized $\mathrm{DMFT}+{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathbf{k}}$ is solved by the numerical renormalization group. Both types of the strongly correlated metals, namely: (i) The doped Mott insulator and (ii) the case of the bandwidth $W\ensuremath{\lesssim}U$ (UUU---value of the local Coulomb interaction) are considered. The densities of states, the spectral functions, and the angle resolved photoemission spectra calculated within the $\mathrm{DMFT}+{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathbf{k}}$ show a pseudogap formation near the Fermi level of the quasiparticle band.
We demonstrate how to identify which physical processes dominate the low-energy spectral functions of correlated electron systems. We obtain an unambiguous classification through an analysis of the equation of motion for the electron self-energy in its charge, spin, and particle-particle representations. Our procedure is then employed to clarify the controversial physics responsible for the appearance of the pseudogap in correlated systems. We illustrate our method by examining the attractive and repulsive Hubbard model in two dimensions. In the latter, spin fluctuations are identified as the origin of the pseudogap, and we also explain why d-wave pairing fluctuations play a marginal role in suppressing the low-energy spectral weight, independent of their actual strength.
Direct analytic continuation of the self-energy is used to determine the effect of antiferromagnetic ordering on the spectral function and optical conductivity of a Mott insulator. Comparison of several methods shows that the most robust estimation of the gap value is obtained by use of the real part of the continued self-energy in the quasiparticle equation within the single-site dynamical mean-field theory of the two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model, where, for a UUU that is slightly greater than the Mott critical value, antiferromagnetism increases the gap by about 80%.
Elucidating the physics of the single-orbital Hubbard model in its intermediate-coupling regime is a key missing ingredient to our understanding of metal-insulator transitions in real materials. Using recent nonperturbative many-body techniques that are able to interpolate between the spin-fluctuation-dominated Slater regime at weak coupling and the Mott insulator at strong coupling, we obtain the momentum-resolved spectral function in the intermediate regime and disentangle the effects of antiferromagnetic fluctuations and local electronic correlations in the formation of an insulating state. This allows us to identify the Slater and Heisenberg regimes in the phase diagram, which are separated by a crossover region of competing spatial and local electronic correlations. We identify the crossover regime by investigating the behavior of the local magnetic moment, shedding light on the formation of the insulating state at intermediate couplings.
Understanding the impact of electronic correlations onto the properties of cuprate superconductors is one of the most prominent tasks of solid state physics. In particular, the intermingling of short range strong correlations, driving the Mott or charge-transfer insulator in the parent compound, and the long range antiferromagnetic scattering processes in the highly doped regime poses severe difficulties to the theoretical description. This thesis studies the impact of short and intermediate ranged strong correlations on the electronic properties of the 2D Hubbard model in the half-filled and doped cases by means of cellular dynamical mean-field theory (CDMFT), i.e. real-space clusters embedded in a dynamical mean-field. Specifically, the effect of incorporating gradually longer ranged correlations onto the metal-insulator transition is analysed and dynamic next-neighbour spin correlations are identified as the cause of the insulating state. Furthermore, by introducing the Bethe-Salpeter scheme for embedded clusters, spin, charge and pairing susceptibilities are computed, incorporating the short ranged strong correlations exactly via the effective interaction of CDMFT and at the same time treating long-ranged fluctuations in a perturbative manner. Firstly, this allows to study the charge response at the Mott transition, identifying the non-local extended s-wave character of the transition. Secondly, in the hole-doped case, the pseudogap, the Knight-shift, a d-wave superconducting instability and unilateral charge instabilities with a periodicity of 4 lattice sites in the s-wave and d-wave channel are observed, all of which strongly depend on next-neighbour spin singlet-like correlations contained in the effective interaction of CDMFT. This work paves the way for computing the conductivity at the boundary between the pseudogap regime and the Fermi liquid. This doctoral thesis was conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and the University of Stuttgart.