Mean-field approaches provide a qualitative understanding of the behavior of interacting many-body systems. Weiss's molecular-field theory, in particular, has been successfully applied to the studies of various phenomena. However, since local fluctuations from the average are ignored, this simple mean-field theory does not work for systems whose distinctive behavior is caused by fluctuation effects. In the present work, we introduce a new cluster mean-field approach, which we refer to as the correlated cluster mean-field approach, and the applications to classical and quantum spin systems are demonstrated. We divide the lattice sites into clusters consisting of several sites and include the effect of cluster-cluster correlations into the effective fields acting on the spins. In doing so, the effect of spin fluctuations can be taken into account, and our method gives qualitatively and even semiquantitatively correct results for both classical and quantum systems.
Mean-field approaches provide a qualitative understanding of the behavior of interacting many-body systems. Weiss's molecular-field theory, in particular, has been successfully applied to the studies of various phenomena. However, since local fluctuations from the average are ignored, this simple mean-field theory does not work for systems whose distinctive behavior is caused by fluctuation effects. In the present work, we introduce a new cluster mean-field approach, which we refer to as the correlated cluster mean-field approach, and the applications to classical and quantum spin systems are demonstrated. We divide the lattice sites into clusters consisting of several sites and include the effect of cluster-cluster correlations into the effective fields acting on the spins. In doing so, the effect of spin fluctuations can be taken into account, and our method gives qualitatively and even semiquantitatively correct results for both classical and quantum systems.
A cluster mean-field method is introduced and the applications to the Ising and Heisenberg models are demonstrated. We divide the lattice sites into clusters whose size and shape are selected so that the equivalence of all sites in a cluster is preserved. Since the strength of interactions of a cluster with its surrounding clusters is strongly dependent on the spin configuration of the central cluster itself, we include this contribution in the effective fields acting on the spins. The effects of ``correlations'' between clusters can be taken into account beyond the standard mean-field level and as a result our cluster-based method gives qualitatively (and even quantitatively) correct results for the both Ising and Heisenberg models. Especially, for the Ising model on the honeycomb and square lattices, the calculated results of the critical temperature are very close (overestimated by only less than 5%) to the exact values.
We introduce Sz spin-projection based on cluster mean-field theory and apply it to the ground state of strongly correlated spin systems. In cluster mean-fields, the ground state wavefunction is written as a factorized tensor product of optimized cluster states. In previous work, we have focused on unrestricted cluster mean-field, where each cluster is Sz symmetry adapted. We here remove this restriction by introducing a generalized cluster mean-field (GcMF) theory, where each cluster is allowed to access all Sz sectors, breaking Sz symmetry. In addition, a projection scheme is used to restore global Sz, which gives rise to the Sz spin-projected generalized cluster mean-field (SzGcMF). Both of these extensions contribute to accounting for inter-cluster correlations. We benchmark these methods on the 1D, quasi-2D, and 2D J1 - J2 and XXZ Heisenberg models. Our results indicate that the new methods (GcMF and SzGcMF) provide a qualitative and semi-quantitative description of the Heisenberg lattices in the regimes considered, suggesting them as useful references for further inter-cluster correlations, which are discussed in this work.
We present an innovative cluster-based method employing linear combinations of diverse cluster mean-field states and apply it to describe the ground state of strongly correlated spin systems. In cluster mean-field theory, the ground state wave function is expressed as a factorized tensor product of optimized cluster states. While our prior work concentrated on a single cMF tiling, this study removes that constraint by combining different tilings of cMF states. Selection criteria, including translational symmetry and spatial proximity, guide this process. We present benchmark calculations for the one- and two-dimensional J 1 – J 2 and XXZ Heisenberg models. Our findings highlight two key aspects. First, the method offers a semiquantitative description of the 0.4 ≲ J 2 / J 1 ≲ 0.6 regime of the J 1 – J 2 model─a particularly challenging regime for existing methods. Second, our results demonstrate the capability of our method to provide qualitative descriptions for all the models and regimes considered, establishing it as a valuable reference. However, the inclusion of additional (weak) correlations is necessary for quantitative agreement, and we explore methods to incorporate these extra correlations.
The mean-field approximation is at the heart of our understanding of complex systems, despite its fundamental limitation of completely neglecting correlations between the elementary constituents. In a recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 130401 (2016)], we have shown that in quantum many-body systems at finite temperature, two-point correlations can be formally separated into a thermal part and a quantum part and that quantum correlations are generically found to decay exponentially at finite temperature, with a characteristic, temperature-dependent quantum coherence length. The existence of these two different forms of correlation in quantum many-body systems suggests the possibility of formulating an approximation, which affects quantum correlations only, without preventing the correct description of classical fluctuations at all length scales. Focusing on lattice boson and quantum Ising models, we make use of the path-integral formulation of quantum statistical mechanics to introduce such an approximation, which we dub quantum mean-field (QMF) approach, and which can be readily generalized to a cluster form (cluster QMF or cQMF). The cQMF approximation reduces to cluster mean-field theory at T=0, while at any finite temperature it produces a family of systematically improved, semi-classical approximations to the quantum statistical mechanics of the lattice theory at hand. Contrary to standard MF approximations, the correct nature of thermal critical phenomena is captured by any cluster size. In the two exemplary cases of the two-dimensional quantum Ising model and of two-dimensional quantum rotors, we study systematically the convergence of the cQMF approximation towards the exact result, and show that the convergence is typically linear or sublinear in the boundary-to-bulk ratio of the clusters as $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, while it becomes faster than linear as T grows. These results pave the way towards the development of semiclassical numerical approaches based on an approximate, yet systematically improved account of quantum correlations.
Mean-field theory (MFT) is one of the main available tools for analytical calculations entailed in investigations regarding many-body systems. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in ameliorating this kind of method, mainly with the aim of incorporating geometric and correlation properties of these systems. The correlated cluster MFT (CCMFT) is an improvement that succeeded quite well in doing that for classical spin systems. Nevertheless, even the CCMFT presents some deficiencies when applied to quantum systems. In this article, we address this issue by proposing the quantum CCMFT (QCCMFT), which, in contrast to its former approach, uses general quantum states in its self-consistent mean-field equations. We apply the introduced QCCMFT to the transverse Ising model in honeycomb, square, and simple cubic lattices and obtain fairly good results both for the Curie temperature of thermal phase transition and for the critical field of quantum phase transition. Actually, our results match those obtained via exact solutions, series expansions or Monte Carlo simulations.
Think globally, act locally. Summary Dynamical mean-field theory is designed to treat systems with local effective interactions that are strong compared with the independent-particle terms that lead to delocalized band-like states. Interactions are taken into account by a many-body calculation for an auxiliary system, a site embedded in a dynamical mean field, that is chosen to best represent the coupling to the rest of the crystal. The methods are constructed to be exact in three limits: interacting electrons on isolated sites, a lattice with no interactions, and the limit of infinite dimensions d → ∞ where mean-field theory is exact. This chapter is devoted to the general formulation, the single-site approximation where the calculation of the self-energy is mapped onto a self-consistent quantum impurity problem, and instructive examples for the Hubbard model on a d → ∞ Bethe lattice. Further developments and applications are the topics of Chs. 17–21. One of the most rewarding features of condensed matter theory is the ability to address difficult problems from different points of view. The preceding Chs. 9–15 present an approach based on perturbation expansions in the Coulomb interaction. In particular, the GW approximation for the self-energy has proven to be extremely successful in describing electronic spectra of many materials, as described in Ch. 13. The methods can be applied to the ordered states of materials with d and f states, for example, ferromagnetic Ni and anti-ferromagnetic NiO, as described in Secs. 13.4 and 20.7. However, the GW and related approximations have difficulties in treating cases with degenerate or nearly degenerate states and low-energy excitations. Present-day methods do not describe phenomena like the fluctuations of local moments in a ferromagnetic material above the Curie temperature or the insulating character of NiO in the paramagnetic phase; more generally, they have difficulty describing strong correlation. The topic of this chapter and Chs. 17–21 is dynamical mean-field theory, which is also a Green's function method in which the key quantity is the self-energy. However, it is designed to treat strong interactions for electrons in localized atomic-like states, such as the d and f states in transition metals, lanthanide and actinide elements and compounds.