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Physical Review A

Absence of binding of three fermions on a two-dimensional lattice

S. Rudin

Published May 1, 1985• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Numerical calculations [D. Mattis and S. Rudin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 755 (1984)] indicate the absence of bound states of three identical spin-(1/2) fermions moving on a two-dimensional lattice and interacting with attractive two-body zero-range potentials. Here, we give a proof of this result in the strong-coupling limit, and we also prove that, in the weak-coupling limit, the ground state of six fermions consists of three bound pairs. We discuss the relevance of this result to superconductivity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.31.3441

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Numerical calculations [D. Mattis and S. Rudin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 755 (1984)] indicate the absence of bound states of three identical spin-(1/2) fermions moving on a two-dimensional lattice and interacting with attractive two-body zero-range potentials. Here, we give a proof of this result in the strong-coupling limit, and we also prove that, in the weak-coupling limit, the ground state of six fermions consists of three bound pairs. We discuss the relevance of this result to superconductivity.
A three-particle spin-12 fermion problem with on-site repulsion and nearest-neighbor attraction is solved on the two-dimensional square lattice by discretizing a Schrödinger equation in momentum space. Energies of bound complexes (trions) and their binding conditions are obtained. For total spin S=1/2, a wide region of trion instability toward decaying into a stable singlet pair plus a free fermion is identified. The instability is attributed to the formation of a wave function node upon addition of the third fermion. In the S=3/2 sector, trions are found to form in the absence of bound pairs indicating Borromean binding. In the strong coupling limit the system transitions from an S=1/2 ground state to a ferromagnetic S=3/2 ground state in agreement with the Nagaoka theorem for a four-site plaquette.
The theory of three-body bound states for particles moving on a lattice and interacting with attractive two-body pointlike potentials is presented. The applications are to bosons, fermions (no three-body bound states are found), and magnons. When a three-body bound state forms in three dimensions, it does so discontinuously. Thus there is a maximum size for the three-body bound state, of approximately two lattice constants. Some of the various analyses are relevant to magnetism and superconductivity.
Relation between the binding energy of a pair of electrons in Cooper's configuration and the magnitude of the attractive interaction between them is investigated theoretically for a two-dimensional electron gas when the electron pair has (a) zero and (b) finite center of mass momentum (CMM) first (i) in the background of a passive Fermi sea and (ii) with inclusion of the effect of Pauli exclusion principle in the presence of an active Fermi sea, at zero temperature. In the Cooper's approach (Cooper 1956 Phys. Rev. 104 1189) two pairing electrons are considered above the Fermi sea. Due to Pauli exclusion principle, these two electrons are forbidden to go into the states whose energies are less than the Fermi energy. Consequently, the role of the electrons which form the Fermi sea is passive in formation of electron pair (Fujita and Godoy 2001 Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity (Kluwer Academic Publishers)). However, in the case of an active Fermi sea, implying possible presence of multiple pairs of electrons coming out of the Fermi sea, the two electrons will have less available region in the momentum space for pair formation due to the Pauli blocking effect. In both the situations, threshold values of attractive interaction are found to exist to bind the electrons having finite CMM even with respect to the Fermi energy while with arbitrarily small value of attractive interaction they can be bound only in the case of zero CMM and that too in the presence of a passive Fermi sea. However, the presence of an active Fermi sea strongly opposes the pair formation having lower CMM. Furthermore, raising the range of the attractive interaction below and above the Fermi surface makes the pair formation more difficult due to enhanced Pauli blocking in this case. In the case of a passive Fermi sea however, with the increase in the range of the attractive interaction it becomes easier for the electron pairs to be in both Cooper pair state (CP) and true bound state (TB). These results are totally distinct from those obtained by Randeria et al (1989 Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 981, 1990 Phys. Rev. B 41 327) that a fermionic bound state in true vacuum is a necessary and sufficient condition for the Cooper pairing instability in the presence of a passive Fermi sea, independent of attractive interaction strength implying that for a potential which is attractive everywhere in two dimension, a two-body bound state exists for an arbitrarily weak attraction. Our calculations show, in the mean field approximation, that co-existence of TB state and CP state with various CMMs can occur only beyond a critical attractive interaction strength. This could lead to the formation of incoherent pairs even under strong coupling situation, which may hint onto the pseudo gap formation leading to some of the exotic features in the anomalous normal state seen in some of the exotic superconductors.
The author explores some of the inherent simplifications of "quantum lattice physics." He distinguishes between fermions and bosons and analyzes the nnn-body problem for each, with n=1,2,3…n=1,2,3\dots{}n=1,2,3… typically a small number. With delta-function (zero-range) interactions, the three-body problem on a lattice is manageable, and some results can even be extrapolated to $n\ensuremath{\ge}4$. Such calculations are not limited to one dimension (where the well-known Bethe ansatz solves a number of nnn-body problems). On the contrary, studies cited are mainly in three dimensions and actually simplify with increasing dimensionality. For example, it is found that bound states of $n\ensuremath{\ge}3$ particles in $d\ensuremath{\ge}3$ dimensions are formed discontinuously as the strength of two-body attractive forces is increased, and are therefore always in the easily analyzed "strong coupling limit." In the Appendix, an exactly solved example from the theory of itinerant-electron magnetism illustrates how a rigorous solution to the few-body problem is capable of yielding information concerning the NNN-body problem.
We pursue three-body bound states in a one-dimensional tight-binding lattice described by the Bose-Hubbard model with strong on-site interaction. Apart from the simple strongly bound ``trimer'' state corresponding to all three particles occupying the same lattice site, we find two novel kinds of weakly bound trimers with energies below and above the continuum of scattering states of a single-particle (``monomer'') and a bound-particle pair (``dimer''). The corresponding binding mechanism can be inferred from an effective Hamiltonian in the strong-coupling regime which contains an exchange interaction between the monomer and the dimer. In the limit of very strong on-site interaction, the exchange-bound trimers attain a universal value of the binding energy. These phenomena can be observed with cold atoms in optical lattices.
We compare two three-particle lattice models on the square lattice at total quasimomentum zero: three identical bosons with attractive contact interactions, and a two-fermion plus one distinguishable particle system with attractive interspecies contact. Using the Birman--Schwinger principle combined with symmetry reduction and strong-coupling asymptotics, we distinguish shared methodology from model-dependent spectral conclusions. For bosons, the ground-state energy behaves as minus three times the coupling plus six minus three over twice the coupling plus higher-order corrections, and exactly two bound states exist below the threshold for large coupling; the second lies at a finite distance 0.03542 below the threshold, a genuine eigenvalue rather than a threshold resonance. For fermions, the critical mass ratio is pi divided by pi minus two, approximately 2.75194; above it, a doubly degenerate level appears at strong coupling. Near onset, the binding energy follows a linear-over-logarithmic law. The results are compared with numerical finite-grid Faddeev computations and with recent three-dimensional classifications of threshold states.