The influence of local disorder on the thermodynamics of interacting electrons is studied within the infinite-dimensional disordered Hubbard model.Using a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo method, the averaged local moment and staggered susceptibility are calculated and the magnetic phase diagram at half-filling is constructed.From the averaged compressibility in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phase we determine the metalinsulator transitions of the system.A rich transition scenario is revealed.Quite unexpectedly the disorder is found to stabilize the magnetic order in the strong-coupling limit.Randomness can significantly influence the low-temperature behaviour of interacting systems.In particular, it may lead to new phases which have no analogue in non-random systems [l].In the case of electrons, the simplest lattice model including both interactions and random potentials is the disordered Hubbard model.It is now known that even in the .mean-field.limit d + CQ [2,3] the Hubbard interaction remains dynamical [4] and leads to a highly non-trivial single-site problem with infinitely many coupled quantum degrees of freedom [5].This problem is, in fact, equivalent to an Anderson impurity model complemented by a self-consistency condition [6] and is thus amenable to numerical investigations [7] within a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo approach [81.In the absence of disorder this technique was already used by several groups to investigate the magnetic phase diagram [7,9], the Mott-Hubbard transition [lo, 1 1 1 and lately also superconductivity in a two-band version [12] of the Hubbard model in d = C Q ; thereby important new insight was gained.In this letter we wish to concentrate on the combined effect of disorder and interaction.We will study the effect of diagonal disorder on the low-temperature properties of the Hubbard model in d = CQ , in particular the competition between correlation-induced
The influence of local disorder on the thermodynamics of interacting electrons is studied within the infinite-dimensional disordered Hubbard model.Using a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo method, the averaged local moment and staggered susceptibility are calculated and the magnetic phase diagram at half-filling is constructed.From the averaged compressibility in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phase we determine the metalinsulator transitions of the system.A rich transition scenario is revealed.Quite unexpectedly the disorder is found to stabilize the magnetic order in the strong-coupling limit.Randomness can significantly influence the low-temperature behaviour of interacting systems.In particular, it may lead to new phases which have no analogue in non-random systems [l].In the case of electrons, the simplest lattice model including both interactions and random potentials is the disordered Hubbard model.It is now known that even in the .mean-field.limit d + CQ [2,3] the Hubbard interaction remains dynamical [4] and leads to a highly non-trivial single-site problem with infinitely many coupled quantum degrees of freedom [5].This problem is, in fact, equivalent to an Anderson impurity model complemented by a self-consistency condition [6] and is thus amenable to numerical investigations [7] within a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo approach [81.In the absence of disorder this technique was already used by several groups to investigate the magnetic phase diagram [7,9], the Mott-Hubbard transition [lo, 1 1 1 and lately also superconductivity in a two-band version [12] of the Hubbard model in d = C Q ; thereby important new insight was gained.In this letter we wish to concentrate on the combined effect of disorder and interaction.We will study the effect of diagonal disorder on the low-temperature properties of the Hubbard model in d = CQ , in particular the competition between correlation-induced
We present a detailed, quantitative study of the competition between interaction- and disorder-induced effects in electronic systems. For this the Hubbard model with diagonal disorder (Anderson-Hubbard model) is investigated analytically and numerically in the limit of infinite spatial dimensions, i.e., within a dynamical mean-field theory, at half-filling. Numerical results are obtained for three different disorder distributions by employing quantum Monte Carlo techniques, which provide an explicit finite-temperature solution of the model in this limit. The magnetic phase diagram is constructed from the zeros of the inverse averaged staggered susceptibility. We find that at low enough temperatures and sufficiently strong interaction there always exists a phase with antiferromagnetic long-range order. A strong coupling anomaly, i.e., an increase of the N\'eel temperature for increasing disorder, is discovered. An explicit explanation is given, which shows that in the case of diagonal disorder this is a generic effect. The existence of metal-insulator transitions is studied by evaluating the averaged compressibility both in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. A rich transition scenario, involving metal-insulator and magnetic transitions, is found and its dependence on the choice of the disorder distribution is discussed.
Anderson-Hubbard Model in d=∞
We present a detailed, quantitative study of the competition between interaction- and disorder-induced effects in electronic systems. For this the Anderson-Hubbard model with diagonal disorder is investigated analytically and by Quantum Monte Carlo techniques in the limit of infinite spatial dimensions at half filling. We construct the magnetic phase diagram and find that at low enough temperatures and sufficiently strong interaction there always exists a phase with antiferromagnetic long-range order. A novel strong coupling anomaly, i.e.~an {\it increase} of the Néel-temperature for increasing disorder, is discovered and explained as an generic effect. The existence of metal-insulator transitions is studied by evaluating the averaged compressibility both in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phase. A rich transition scenario, involving metal-insulator and magnetic transitions, is found and its dependence on the choice of the disorder distribution is discussed.
The two-dimensional Hubbard model in the presence of diagonal and off-diagonal disorder is studied at half-filling with a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo method. Magnetic correlations as well as the electronic compressibility are calculated to determine the behavior of local magnetic moments, the stability of antiferromagnetic long-range order (AFLRO), and properties of the disordered phase. The existence of random potentials (diagonal or ``site'' disorder) leads to a suppression of local magnetic moments which eventually destroys AFLRO. Randomness in the hopping elements (off-diagonal disorder), on the other hand, does not significantly reduce the density of local magnetic moments. For this type of disorder, at half-filling, there is no ``sign problem'' in the simulations as long as the hopping is restricted between neighbor sites on a bipartite lattice. This allows the study of sufficiently large lattices and low temperatures to perform a finite-size scaling analysis. For off-diagonal disorder, AFLRO is eventually destroyed when the fluctuations of antiferromagnetic exchange couplings exceed a critical value. The disordered phase close to the transition appears to be incompressible, and shows an increase of the uniform susceptibility at low temperatures.
We study the effects of disorder on long-range antiferromagnetic correlations in the half-filled, two-dimensional, repulsive Hubbard model at T=0. A mean field approach is first employed to gain a qualitative picture of the physics and to guide our choice for a trial wave function in a constrained path quantum Monte Carlo (CPQMC) method that allows for a more accurate treatment of correlations. Within the mean field calculation, we observe both Anderson and Mott insulating antiferromagnetic phases. There are transitions to a paramagnet only for relatively weak coupling, U<2t in the case of bond disorder, and U<4t in the case of on-site disorder. Using ground-state CPQMC we demonstrate that this mean field approach significantly overestimates magnetic order. For U=4t, we find a critical bond disorder of ${V}_{c}\ensuremath{\approx}(1.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4)t$ even though within mean field theory no paramagnetic phase is found for this value of the interaction. In the site disordered case, we find a critical disorder of ${V}_{c}\ensuremath{\approx}(5.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5)t$ at U=4t.
We study the interplay between electron correlation and disorder in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at half filling by means of a variational wave function that can interpolate between Anderson and Mott insulators. We give a detailed description of our improved variational state and explain how the physics of the Anderson-Mott transition can be inferred from equal-time correlations functions, which can be easily computed within the variational Monte Carlo scheme. The ground-state phase diagram is worked out in both the paramagnetic and the magnetic sector. Whereas in the former a direct second-order Anderson-Mott transition is obtained, when magnetism is allowed variationally, we find evidence for the formation of local magnetic moments that order before the Mott transition. Although the localization length increases before the Mott transition, we have no evidence for the stabilization of a true metallic phase. The effect of a frustrating next-nearest-neighbor hopping ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ is also studied in some detail. In particular, we show that ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ has two primary effects. The first one is the narrowing of the stability region of the magnetic Anderson insulator, also leading to a first-order magnetic transition. The second and most important effect of a frustrating hopping term is the development of a ``glassy'' phase at strong couplings, where many paramagnetic states, with disordered local moments, may be stabilized.
In this thesis we consider a variational wave function approach as a possible route to describe the competition between disorder and strong electron-electron interaction in two dimensions. In particular we aim to obtain a transparent and physically intuitive understanding of the competition between these two localizing forces within the simplest model where they both are active, namely the disordered Hubbard model at half filling and in a square lattice. Our approach is based on an approximate form of the ground-state wave function, which we believe contains the physically relevant ingredients for a correct description of both the Mott and the Anderson insulators, where electrons are localized by the Coulomb repulsion and by disorder, respectively. For strongly interacting fermionic systems, a standard variational wave function is constructed by a correlation term acting on a Slater determinant, the latter being an uncorrelated metallic state. Previous variational calculations showed that a long-range density-density correlation factor, so called Jastrow factor, is needed to correctly describe the Mott insulator [9]. This term, which is collective by definition, correlates spatially charge uctuations, thus preventing their free motion that would otherwise imply metallic conductance. For this reason, our variational wave function does include such a term. Anderson localization is instead mostly a matter of single-particle wave functions, hence it pertains to the uncorrelated Slater determinant which the Jastrow factor acts onto. We consider both the case in which we enforce paramagnetism in the wave function and the case in which we allow for magnetic ordering. Summarizing briefly our results, we find that, when the variational wave function is forced to be paramagnetic, the Anderson insulator to Mott insulator transition is continuous. This transition can be captured by studying several quantities. In particular, a novel one that we have identified and that is easily accessible variationally is the disconnected density-density fluctuation at long wavelength, defined by lim where ^nq is the Fourier transform of the charge density at momentum q, (...) denotes quantum average at fixed disorder and the overbar represents the average over disorder configurations. We find that Ndisc q!0 is everywhere finite in the Anderson insulator and vanishes critically at the Mott transition, staying zero in the Mott insulator. When magnetism is allowed and the hopping only connects nearest neighbor sites, upon increasing interaction the paramagnetic Anderson insulator first turns antiferromagnetic and finally the magnetic and compressible Anderson insulator gives way to an incompressible antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. The optimized uncorrelated Slater determinant is always found to be the eigenstate of a disordered non-interacting effective Hamiltonian, which suggests that the model is never metallic. Finally, when magnetism is frustrated by a next to nearest neighbor hopping, the overall sequence of phases does not change. However, the paramagnetic to magnetic transition within the Anderson insulator basin of stability turns first order. Indeed, within the magnetically ordered phase, we find many almost degenerate paramagnetic states with well defined local moments. This is suggestive of an emerging glassy behavior when the competition between disorder and strong correlation is maximum.