Analytic theory of the spin bipolaron in the t-J model

Mukhomorov Vladimir

Massimo Capone, P. Carta, Sergio Ciuchi

The evolution of the properties of a finite density electronic system as a function of the electron-phonon coupling is investigated in the Holstein model using the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) that becomes exact in infinite dimensions. We compare the spinless fermion case, in which only isolated polarons can be formed, with the spinful model in which the polarons can bind and form bipolarons. In the latter case, the bipolaronic binding occurs within DMFT as a metal-insulator transition. In the adiabatic regime in which the phonon energy is small with respect to the electron hopping we compare numerically exact DMFT results with an analytical scheme inspired by the Born-Oppenheimer procedure. Within the latter approach, a truncation of the phononic Hilbert space leads to a mapping of the original model onto an Anderson spin-fermion model. In the anti-adiabatic regime (where the phonon energy exceeds the electronic scales) the standard treatment based on Lang-Firsov canonical transformation allows one to map the original model on to an attractive Hubbard model in the spinful case. The separate analysis of the two regimes supports the numerical evidence that the presence of well-defined polaronic lattice displacements is not necessarily associated to a metal-insulator transition, which is instead due to pairing between the carriers. The finite-dimensionality effects neglected in DMFT may lead to a finite conductivity in the bipolaronic state which is, however, not always associated with polaronic distortions. At the polaron crossover the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is shown to break down due to the entanglement of the electron-phonon state.

Zhongbing Huang, Shiping Feng

Zheng-Yu Weng, D. N. Sheng, C. S. Ting

M. A. Smondyrev, J. T. Devreese

Comments are given on the application of the Bogoliubov-Tyablikov approach to the bipolaron problem in a recent paper by Lakhno [Phys. Rev. B 51, 3512 (1995)]. This author believes that his model (1) is the translation-invariant adiabatic theory of bipolarons and (2) gives asymptotically exact solutions in the adiabatic limit while the other approaches are considered as either phenomenological or variational in nature. Numerical results by Lakhno are in contradiction with all other papers published on the subject because his model leads to much lower energies. Thus, the author concludes that bipolarons ``are more stable than was considered before.'' We prove that both the analytical and the numerical results presented by Lakhno are wrong. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Alberto Lerda A