We investigate superconductivity in a quasi-one-dimensional bipolaron system with random potentials, treating the interchain Josephson couplings in the mean-field approximation. The model is transformed into the S=(1/2 XXZ-spin chain with random fields along the z axis and the ordering field along the x axis. Using the quantum transfer-matrix method by the Suzuki-Trotter formula, we calculate the order parameter and the rigidity as functions of the temperature, the mean strength of the random fields, and the ordering field. We obtain the two-parameter scaling laws for these quantities. We also discuss these scaling relations by using the cumulant expansion in the phase Hamiltonian. This analytical method is extended to the more general models of one-dimensional interacting electrons, and the generalized susceptibilities for various long-range orderings are discussed in the light of the scaling laws.
Effects of random impurities on one-dimensional interacting electron systems are studied by use of the quantum Monte Carlo method and the phase variable representation of charge density and superconducting fluctuations. The impurities pin the phase variable of charge density fluctuation, whereas the quantum fluctuation around the pinned state reduces the pinning effect yielding increase of the superconducting fluctuation since the charge density and the superconducting fluctuations are complementary to each other. Such interplay between randomness and interactions is shown explicitly by calculating spatial dependence of quantum fluctuations, metastable states and correlation functions for superconductivity. Quantum character of metastable states is discussed. It is found that superconducting state is more sensitive to impurities than charge density wave state when the interaction between electrons is weak.
Monte Carlo simulations are performed to examine superconductivity and charge-density-wave fluctuations in the infinite-dimensional electron-phonon Holstein model. The electron-phonon system interpolates between an attractive, static, Falicov-Kimball model that always exhibits charge-density-wave order and an attractive, instantaneous, Hubbard model that always superconducts as a function of phonon frequency. The maximum charge-density-wave transition temperature at half-filling is an order of magnitude smaller than the effective electronic bandwidth and is virtually independent of the phonon frequency. The maximum superconducting transition temperature depends strongly on phonon frequency and is bounded from above by the maximum charge-density-wave transition temperature. The exact solution is compared to both weak-coupling expansions and strong-coupling expansions. The effective phonon potential becomes anharmonic and develops a double-well structure that deepens as the electron-phonon interaction increases.
We investigate the competition between superconductivity (SC) and charge density wave (CDW) under a time-dependent periodic field in the attractive Hubbard model. By employing the time-dependent exact diagonalization method, we show that the driving frequency and amplitude of the external field can control the enhancement of either the superconducting pair or the CDW correlation in the system, for which SC and CDW are degenerate in the ground state of the half-filled attractive Hubbard model in the absence of the field. In the strong-coupling limit of the attractive Hubbard interaction, the controllability is characterized by the anisotropic interaction of the effective model. The anisotropy is induced by the external field and lifts the degeneracy of SC and CDW. We find that the enhancement or suppression of the superconducting pair and CDW correlations in the periodically driven attractive Hubbard model can be well interpreted by the quench dynamics of the effective model derived in the strong-coupling limit.
By using variational wave functions and quantum Monte Carlo techniques, we investigate the interplay between electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions in the two-dimensional Hubbard-Holstein model. Here, the ground-state phase diagram is triggered by several energy scales, i.e., the electron hopping
t, the on-site electron-electron interaction
U, the phonon energy ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$, and the electron-phonon coupling
g. At half filling, the ground state is an antiferromagnetic insulator for $U\ensuremath{\gtrsim}2{g}^{2}/{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$, while it is a charge-density-wave (or bipolaronic) insulator for $U\ensuremath{\lesssim}2{g}^{2}/{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$. In addition to these phases, we find a superconducting phase that intrudes between them. For ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}/t=1$, superconductivity emerges when both
U/t and $2{g}^{2}/t{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$ are small; then, by increasing the value of the phonon energy ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$, it extends along the transition line between antiferromagnetic and charge-density-wave insulators. Away from half filling, phase separation occurs when doping the charge-density-wave insulator, while a uniform (superconducting) ground state is found when doping the superconducting phase. In the analysis of finite-size effects, it is extremely important to average over twisted boundary conditions, especially in the weak-coupling limit and in the doped case.
The electron-phonon $(e\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ph})$ interaction remains of great interest in condensed matter physics and plays a vital role in realizing superconductors, charge density waves (CDW), and polarons. We study the two-dimensional Holstein model for $e\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ph}$ coupling using determinant quantum Monte Carlo across a wide range of its phase diagram as a function of temperature, electron density, dimensionless $e\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ph}$ coupling strength, and the adiabatic ratio of the phonon frequency to the Fermi energy. We describe the behavior of the CDW correlations, the competition between superconducting and CDW orders and polaron formation, the optimal conditions for superconductivity, and the transition from the weak-coupling regime to the strong-coupling regime. Superconductivity is optimized at intermediate $e\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ph}$ coupling strength and intermediate electron density, and the superconducting correlations increase monotonically with phonon frequency. The global maximum for superconductivity in the Holstein model occurs at large phonon frequency, the limit where an attractive Hubbard model effectively describes the physics.