As a convenient qualitative approach to strongly correlated electronic systems, an inhomogeneous Hartree-Fock plus random-phase approximation is applied to response functions for the two-dimensional multiband Hubbard model for cuprate superconductors. A comparison of the results with those obtained by exact diagonalization by Wagner, Hanke, and Scalapino [Phys. Rev. B 43, 10 517 (1991)] shows that overall structures in optical and magnetic particle-hole excitation spectra are well reproduced by this method. This approach is computationally simple, retains conceptual clarity, and can be calibrated by comparison with exact results on small systems. Most importantly, it is easily extended to larger systems and straightforward to incorporate additional terms in the Hamiltonian, such as electron-phonon interactions, which may play a crucial role in high-temperature superconductivity.
On the basis of exact diagonalizations, a comparative study of two-particle optical and magnetic, as well as single-particle, excitations is presented for a two-dimensional (2D) multiorbital Hubbard model. For reasonable parameter sets appropriate for the cuprate superconductors, the single-particle excitations display strongly correlated states related to the Zhang-Rice Cu-O singlet construction. These states define the gap (to the upper Hubbard band) at half-filling and become partially occupied by doping holes in our 2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2 unit-cell system. The optical results, which are the first quantitative calculations performed for realistic parameters of the three-band Hubbard model, clearly show three allowed optical transitions: (i) itinerant motion of the Cu-O singlets, having (for doping concentrations x\ensuremath{\ne}0) a spectral Drude distribution around \ensuremath{\omega}=0 with spectral weight proportional to x; (ii) unbinding of the O hole from the Cu spin in the singlet. This gives, in particular, a strong absorption peak due to singlet\ensuremath{\rightarrow}nonbonding oxygen transitions, again with relative weight \ensuremath{\sim}x.It is roughly centered at \ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\sim}
JKondo, where
JKondo is the Kondo coupling and \ensuremath{\Delta} the bare Cu-O charge-transfer energy. It is this singlet unbinding that results in the by far dominant absorption structure between Drude and higher-energy Cu-O transitions and not the often discussed ``mid-infrared'' absorption due to transitions between different singlet states. (iii) Cu-O charge-transfer processes at energy \ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{\Delta}+
Upd. They show a pronounced excitonic effect due to the p-d interaction
Upd and have a reduced spectral weight shifted to higher energies for increased dopings. Findings (i)--(iii) are in general accordance with recent experimental data. Our study of the low-energy absorption is complemented with a numerical scaling analysis of the Drude weight in 1D, where, in particular, we find an interesting violation of Lenz's law for 4n-site Hubbard rings. Finally, the magnetic structure factor is calculated for the 2D case. For finite doping it contains a peak at 2
JKondo, which should be detectable in experiment.