At large electron-phonon coupling, the phonon of the Holstein-Hubbard model can be (generally) treated classically. Exact results can be obtained for this model at any band filling and any finite dimension where the Hubbard term with coefficient U is treated rigorously. The existence of chaotic bipolaronic states is proven when U is smaller than a certain value Uc and for an electron-phonon coupling k sufficiently large. The existence of magnetic polaronic states is also proven for positive U and k sufficiently large. For 0<U<Uc, there exists an overlap region with chaotic mixed polaronic-bipolaronic states. There is a region for U=Uc/2 and large k of special interest, where the bipolarons in their ground-state become singlet pairs of polarons bounded by a magnetic resonance. Then, the Peierls-Nabarro barrier which usually pins polarons and bipolarons to the lattice depresses to almost zero and the validity of the classical lattice approximation breaks down so that the initial exact results do not apply in that specific region. The formation of a superconducting state with possibly a high critical temperature, is then conjectured at a large coupling k in a narrow domain in-between the two insulating domains corresponding to Bipolaronic Charge Density Waves and to magnetic Polaronic Spin Density Waves respectively.
At large electron-phonon coupling, the phonon of the Holstein-Hubbard model can be (generally) treated classically. Exact results can be obtained for this model at any band filling and any finite dimension where the Hubbard term with coefficient U is treated rigorously. The existence of chaotic bipolaronic states is proven when U is smaller than a certain value Uc and for an electron-phonon coupling k sufficiently large. The existence of magnetic polaronic states is also proven for positive U and k sufficiently large. For 0<U<Uc, there exists an overlap region with chaotic mixed polaronic-bipolaronic states. There is a region for U=Uc/2 and large k of special interest, where the bipolarons in their ground-state become singlet pairs of polarons bounded by a magnetic resonance. Then, the Peierls-Nabarro barrier which usually pins polarons and bipolarons to the lattice depresses to almost zero and the validity of the classical lattice approximation breaks down so that the initial exact results do not apply in that specific region. The formation of a superconducting state with possibly a high critical temperature, is then conjectured at a large coupling k in a narrow domain in-between the two insulating domains corresponding to Bipolaronic Charge Density Waves and to magnetic Polaronic Spin Density Waves respectively.
We review a series of exact, analytical and numerical results obtained on the adiabatic Holstein–Hubbard model, many of which are new and non-trivial. We study next the role of the quantum lattice fluctuations that were initially neglected. The possibility of having high- T c bipolaronic superconductors is analysed on the basis of these results. We suggest that models that involve only electron–phonon coupling are very unlikely to produce bipolaronic superconductivity, which is prevented by the spatial ordering of the bipolarons associated with a lattice instability. This is due to a very large effective mass of the bipolarons that can be related to the large Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier required to move these bipolarons through the lattice in the adiabatic limit. We conjecture that high- T c superconductivity originates specifically from the exceptionally well-balanced competition between electron–phonon coupling and electron–electron repulsion. In the restricted region in which, within the mean field approach, the energy of a bipolaron is close to those of two polarons, a new type of electron pairing occurs by formation of pairs of polarons in the spin singlet state. Such a polaron pair, called a spin resonant bipolaron (SRB), is not the standard bipolaron (both could exist in the adiabatic case). Its Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier can be sharply depressed, almost to zero. As a result of quantum lattice fluctuations, its tunnelling energy is sharply enhanced. Then, superconductivity could persist for a relatively large electron–phonon coupling, with an unusually large critical temperature as a Bose condensate of SRBs before becoming, at larger coupling and in any case, an insulating spin–Peierls polaronic phase.
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.
Abstract. The spatially localized bound states of two electrons in the adiabatic two-dimensional Holstein-Hubbard model on a square lattice are investigated both numerically and analytically. The interplay between the electron-phonon coupling g, which tends to form bipolarons and the repulsive Hubbard interaction υ ≥ 0, which tends to break them, generates many different ground-states. There are four domains in the g,υ phase diagram delimited by first order transition lines. Except for the domain at weak electronphonon coupling (small g) where the electrons remain free, the electrons form bipolarons which can 1) be mostly located on a single site (small υ, large g); 2) be an anisotropic pair of polarons lying on two neighboring sites in the magnetic singlet state (large υ, large g); or 3) be a ”quadrisinglet state ” which is the superposition of 4 electronic singlets with a common central site. This quadrisinglet bipolaron is the most stable in a small central domain in between the three other phases. The pinning modes and the Peierls-Nabarro barrier of each of these bipolarons are calculated and the barrier is found to be strongly depressed in the region of stability of the quadrisinglet bipolaron. PACS. 71.10.Fd Lattice fermion models (Hubbard model, etc.) – 71.38.+i Polarons and electron phonon interactions – 74.20.Mn Nonconventional mechanisms (spin fluctuations, polarons and bipolarons, resonating valence bond model, anyon mechanism, marginal Fermi liquid, Luttinger liquid, etc.) – 74.25.Jb Electronic structure
Standard Peierls theory predicts that the wave-vector of the charge density wave (CDW) induced by the electron-phonon coupling in the ground-state of a one-dimensional conductor is twice the Fermi wave-vector 2k F . At moderately large electron-phonon coupling, beyond the TBA (transition by breaking of analyticity), it is known that this CDW becomes an array of interacting bipolarons. In the simplest models, such as the 1D adiabatic Holstein model, the bipolaron interactions are repulsive and the ground state remains a 2k F CDW of equidistant bipolarons. We show that (apparently) minor changes in the phonon spectrum of the model induce extra elastic forces between the bipolarons, which could break the bipolaronic 2k F CDW ordering. This effect is studied in detail in the modified 1D Holstein model, where the optical phonon has a non-zero dispersion which is chosen positive in order that an extra force that appears between the bipolarons be attractive. The Coulomb forces between the bipolarons are initially neglected. An accurate numerical study modelled on the standard analysis of multiphase points confirms that, in a large part of the phase diagram, the CDW ground state separates in two phases, which correspond to two CDW with different 2k F wave-vectors (which are generally commensurate) and thus different electronic densities. These separations, into phases called either 'parent' or 'non-parent', are studied on the basis of the Farey construction of rational numbers. The long-range Coulomb interaction between the charged bipolarons, forbids any macroscopic phase separation in two phases with different electronic densities. The bipolaron structure then has to be a periodic sequence of alternate domains of the two CDW phases on the microscopic scale. The resulting structure is a new CDW with a modulation wave-vector that is not 2k F . We suggest that the aberrant wave-vector observed in the real CDW system (TaSe 4 ) 2 I could be interpreted along the ideas developed in this paper. Although this compound shares many of the usual properties of quasi-one-dimensional conductors with CDW, the component of the modulation wave-vector 0.085c* in the chain direction is, unusually, quite different from the value 2k F =c* expected from band filling. The CDW in (TaSe 4 ) 2 I could correspond to a nonstandard bipolaron ordering due to a strong attractive elastic interaction between the bipolarons along the chain competing with the long-range Coulomb forces.
The bound states of two electrons in the adiabatic Holstein-Hubbard model are studied numerically in one and two dimensions from the anticontinuous limit. This model involves a competition between a local electron-phonon coupling (with a classical lattice) which tends to form pairs of electrons and the repulsive Hubbard interaction U≥0 which tends to break them. In 1D, the ground-state always consists in a pair of localized polarons in a singlet state. They are located at the same site for U=0. Increasing U, there is a first order transition at which the bipolaron becomes a spin singlet pair of two polarons bounded by a magnetic interaction. The pinning mode of the bipolaron soften in the vicinity of this transition leading to a higher mobility of the bipolaron which is tested numerically. In 2D, and for any U, the electron-phonon coupling needs to be large enough in order to form small polarons or bipolarons instead of extended electrons. We calculate the phase diagram of the bipolaron involving first order transitions lines with a triple point. A pair of polarons can form three types of bipolarons: a) on a single site at small U, b) a spin singlet state on two nearest neighbor sites for larger U as in 1D and c) a new intermediate state obtained as the resonant combination of four 2-sites singlet states sharing a central site, called quadrisinglet. The breathing and pinning internal modes of bipolarons in 2D generally only weakly soften and thus, they are practically not mobile. On the opposite, in the vicinity of the triple point involving the quadrisinglet, both modes exhibit a significant softening. However, it was not sufficient for allowing the existence of a classical mobile bipolaron (at least in that model).
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.