Physical review. B, Condensed matter
Dynamical correlation-hole approach to the Hubbard model
M. C. Refolio, J. M. López Sancho, J. Rubio, María P. López-Sancho
Abstract
The Hubbard I decoupling approximation [J. Hubbard, Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A 276, 238 (1963)] is extended by introducing a k-dependent self-energy which describes a mobile correlation hole of opposite spin propagating along with the electron in its way around the lattice. The theory, despite its simplicity, (1) becomes exact in the strong-coupling limit; and (2) reproduces with great accuracy the ground-state energy, the double occupancy, the on-site correlation functions, and the effective hopping for all the values of the Hubbard Coulomb repulsion U. It also gives reasonable spectral functions leading to (3) a single-particle Green function showing the well-known spectral-weight transfer between the Hubbard bands as soon as the electron density deviates from half-filling, and (4) a momentum distribution as well as magnetic and charge structure factors in qualitative agreement with quantum Monte Carlo simulations, slave-boson calculations, and conserving approximations like fluctuation exchange and parquet. On the other hand, as in most decoupling schemes, liftime effects and the near-Fermi-level additional structure characteristic of strongly correlated electron systems are missing.