This thesis investigates different methods for treating strongly correlated systems, and discusses their respective strengths and weaknesses. Many of the results presented in this thesis come from comparing the different methods and approximations to exact results. Paper I: We studied the real-time dynamics of a trapped fermion gas, as it expands after removal of a trapping potential. Paper II: We constructed a new exchange-correlation potential, to be used in three dimensions. The potential is non-perturbative in the interaction, meaning that we could use it both for weakly interacting (metallic) systems, as well as for strongly interacting (Mott insulating) systems. Paper III: We studied transport of electrons through small disordered wires contacted to leads. Using TDDFT, we have studied how the inclusion of both disorder and large electron-electron interactions affect conduction. At finite bias, we saw that the effects where competitive, and that interactions could increase the current through disordered samples. Paper IV: We studied fermions in 3D, using our newly developed exchange-correlation potentials, presented in Paper II. We studied how a cloud of fermions expands when released from a trapping potential. The simulated systems were large enough to be relevant for actual experimental conditions. Paper V: We studied transport of electrons through small disordered wires contacted to leads. The setup was similar to the one in Paper III, but another method was used - NEGF. Many of the observed trends were similar to those seen in our previous investigations. The differences were attributed to non-local effects.
This thesis investigates different methods for treating strongly correlated systems, and discusses their respective strengths and weaknesses. Many of the results presented in this thesis come from comparing the different methods and approximations to exact results. Paper I: We studied the real-time dynamics of a trapped fermion gas, as it expands after removal of a trapping potential. Paper II: We constructed a new exchange-correlation potential, to be used in three dimensions. The potential is non-perturbative in the interaction, meaning that we could use it both for weakly interacting (metallic) systems, as well as for strongly interacting (Mott insulating) systems. Paper III: We studied transport of electrons through small disordered wires contacted to leads. Using TDDFT, we have studied how the inclusion of both disorder and large electron-electron interactions affect conduction. At finite bias, we saw that the effects where competitive, and that interactions could increase the current through disordered samples. Paper IV: We studied fermions in 3D, using our newly developed exchange-correlation potentials, presented in Paper II. We studied how a cloud of fermions expands when released from a trapping potential. The simulated systems were large enough to be relevant for actual experimental conditions. Paper V: We studied transport of electrons through small disordered wires contacted to leads. The setup was similar to the one in Paper III, but another method was used - NEGF. Many of the observed trends were similar to those seen in our previous investigations. The differences were attributed to non-local effects.
Disorder is ubiquitous in real materials and influences the physical properties like the conductivity to varying degrees. If electron-electron interactions are strong, theoretical and numerical treatment of these systems becomes challenging. In this thesis a numerical approach is developed to address these systems, treating both interactions and disorder on equal footing. The approach is based on the dual fermion approach for interacting systems developed by Rubtsov et al. Terletska et al. applied the ideas of the dual fermion approach to disordered non-interacting systems. In this approach, the replica trick is used to integrate out the disorder in favor of an effective electron-electron interaction. We extended the approach from Terletska et al. to treat disordered interacting systems. Dual Fermions allow to take into account non-local fluctuations by means of a perturbative expansion around an impurity problem. The impurity reference system is determined self-consistently, analogously to the dynamical mean-field theory. The perturbative expansion is expected to yield good results for small and large values of interaction strength and disorder. A priori, it is not clear what to expect for intermediate values, but experience shows that oftentimes good results are obtained for this region. An advantage of the dual fermion approach is that there is no sign-problem for a single orbital model if quantum Monte Carlo is used to solve the interacting reference system. Additionally, perturbation theory is usually numerically much cheaper than fully solving an interacting lattice or cluster problem. Thus, the dual fermion approach allows to address regions of parameter space that are not accessible to lattice quantum Monte Carlo calculations or cluster extension of dynamical mean-field theory. Cluster extensions of the dynamical mean-field theory are for example the dynamical cluster approximation or the cellular dynamical mean-field theory. The new approach is benchmarked with respect to the Anderson-Falicov-Kimball model. The Anderson-Hubbard model is the main application. For both models, the algorithm is tested in one dimension for the single particle Green function and compared to the dynamical cluster approximation to estimate the quality of the results. The Anderson-Falicov-Kimball model is studied further in two dimensions and the phase diagram on the disorder-interaction plane is calculated from both the single particle Green function and the dc conductivity. For the Anderson-Hubbard model, the antiferromagnetic phase transition, the Mott transition and the Anderson transition are investigated in three dimensions. The dynamical mean-field theory results are qualitatively confirmed for the most part. Quantitative corrections are in agreement with dynamical cluster approximation results, thus confirming the validity of the results. We found a qualitative difference between the dual fermion approach and dynamical mean-field theory for the temperature dependence of the hysteresis of the double occupancy. The dual fermion result shows a decreasing lower critical interaction strength for decreasing temperature, which is in contrast with the dynamical mean-field result that shows an increase of the lower critical interaction strength. This behavior happens for small temperatures that are not accessible using for example the dynamical cluster approximation, thus highlighting the usefulness of the dual fermion approach. We found this behavior for all values of the disorder that we considered.
In this thesis we focus on improvements of the description of the electron-electron correlation effects in nonequilibrium nanosystems. We mainly focus on developments of two nonequilibrium methods, namely the formalism of Nonequilibrium Green’s Function and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory and we explore the possibility to improve existing approximations in these theories. A smaller part of the thesis is devoted to the Exact Diagonalization method which provides a numerically exact description of small systems.Paper I: We review the current methods for description of correlated materials in nonequilibrium and their connection to pump-probe spectroscopy.Paper II: We propose a hybrid method for the real time dynamics of strongly correlated materials which includes memory effects beyond the adiabatic local density approximation.Paper III: We study the dynamics of desorption of a molecule from a surface with different levels of approximation for both the nuclear and the electronic part. We compare a full quantum mechanical treatment to the Ehrenfestapproximation for the molecule and perturbative approximations for the electrons.Paper IV: We develop a theory of current-induced forces within Adiabatic Ehrenfest Dynamics which includes effects of electron-electron interactions. We study a dependence of the electronic friction on interaction strength.We also benchmark it against nonadiabatic Ehrenfest dynamics.Paper V: We study the competition of interaction and disorder in systems with steady state currents - in transport and ring geometries. We exactly define the exchange-correlation screening of the disorder by the interactioneffects via Kohn–Sham construction of DFT.Paper VI: We study a competition between Kondo and RKKY interaction in small clusters of Periodic Anderson Model (ring geometries), we construct a nonequilibrium Doniach-phase like diagram. We then determine anoptimal pulse to induce transitions with the highest fidelity.
With recent advances in the field of ultra cold atoms one can, by trapping atoms at low temperatures by laser beams, simulate systems which can be adequately described by single-band lattice Hamiltonians. Also, due to the high parameter tunability of the experimental setups, lattice disorder can be introduced in a con- trolled fashion in these systems. This thesis considers disordered/ordered interacting fermion lattice systems in equilibrium in one and two dimensions, subject to trap- ping parabolic potentials, where different levels of description, ranging from exact where possible (in 1D, Density Matrix Renormalization Group, DMRG), to approxi- mate (based on several local-density approximations within the framework of Lattice Density Functional Theory) are used. The exchange-correlation potentials consid- ered come from Many-Body Approximations obtained using Green’s functions, as well as from an exact local-density approximation (LDA) based on the Bethe-Ansatz (BALDA) in 1D. Both one- and two-dimensional systems were studied in equilib- rium, essentially looking at the ground state density profiles. Furthermore, in 2D, a pseudo-dynamics representing the trap-opening in the complete adiabatic limit was also studied. For one-dimensional systems, it is found that, in general, BALDA yields very good results compared to DMRG, except for the low density limit, but DMRG can describe features that none of the LDA:s considered can reproduce. It is also found that the strength of the external potential affects the impact that the exchange-correlation potential has on the system. Many of these features translate to the 2D case. However, a new aspect emerges in two dimensions, related to the competition of disorder and interaction. Here an important outcome is that, on opening the trap at an ideally adiabatic rate, different MBA:s (and thus different LDA:s) provide different minimal vs maximal expansion radii of the particle cloud, as a result of the interplay of disorder and interaction, and the underlying square lattice structure. For the 2D results, exact benchmarks were not available, and our findings may thus need further validation, by e.g. considering several disorder configurations or, ideally, by performing full Green’s function calculations. These considerations are summarised in our conclusions and outlook remarks, where possible directions for future investigation are highlighted.
Disorder is ubiquitous in real materials and influences the physical properties like the conductivity to varying degrees. \nIf electron-electron interactions are strong, theoretical and numerical treatment of these systems becomes challenging. In this thesis a numerical approach is developed to address these systems, \ntreating both interactions and disorder on equal footing. \nThe approach is based on the dual fermion approach for interacting systems developed by Rubtsov et al. \nTerletska et al. applied the ideas of the dual fermion approach to disordered non-interacting systems. In this approach, the replica trick is used to integrate out the disorder in favor of an effective electron-electron interaction. \nWe extended the approach from Terletska et al. to treat disordered interacting systems. \n \nDual Fermions allow to take into account non-local fluctuations by means of a perturbative expansion around an impurity problem. The impurity reference system is determined self-consistently, analogously to the dynamical mean-field \ntheory. \nThe perturbative expansion is expected to yield good results for small and large values of interaction strength and disorder. A priori, it is not clear what to expect for intermediate values, \nbut experience shows that oftentimes good results are obtained for this region. \n \nAn advantage of the dual fermion approach is that there is no sign-problem for a single orbital model if quantum Monte Carlo is used to solve the interacting reference system. \nAdditionally, perturbation theory is usually numerically much cheaper than fully solving an interacting lattice or cluster problem. \nThus, the dual fermion approach allows to address regions of parameter space that are not accessible to lattice quantum Monte Carlo calculations or cluster extension of dynamical mean-field theory. \nCluster extensions of the dynamical mean-field theory are for example the dynamical cluster approximation or the cellular dynamical mean-field theory. \n \nThe new approach is benchmarked with respect to the Anderson-Falicov-Kimball model. The Anderson-Hubbard model is the main application. \nFor both models, the algorithm is tested in one dimension for the single particle Green function and compared to the dynamical cluster approximation to estimate the quality of the results. \nThe Anderson-Falicov-Kimball model is studied further in two dimensions and the phase diagram on the disorder-interaction plane is calculated from both the single particle Green function and the dc conductivity. \n \nFor the Anderson-Hubbard model, the antiferromagnetic phase transition, the Mott transition and the Anderson transition are investigated in three dimensions. The dynamical mean-field theory results are \nqualitatively confirmed for the most part. Quantitative corrections are in agreement with dynamical cluster approximation results, thus confirming the validity of the results. \nWe found a qualitative difference between the dual fermion approach and dynamical mean-field theory for the temperature dependence of the hysteresis of the double occupancy. The dual fermion result \nshows a decreasing lower critical interaction strength for decreasing temperature, which is in contrast with the dynamical mean-field result that shows an increase of the lower critical interaction strength. \nThis behavior happens for small temperatures that are not accessible using for example the dynamical cluster approximation, thus highlighting the usefulness of the dual fermion approach. \nWe found this behavior for all values of the disorder that we considered.
Strongly correlated systems, i.e., quantum materials for which the interactions between its constituents are strong, are good candidates for the development of applications based on quantum-mechanical principles, such as quantum computers. Two paradigmatic models of strongly correlated systems are heavy-fermionic systems and one-dimensional spin-12 systems, with and without quenched disorder. In the past decade, improvement in computational methods and a vast enhancement in computational power has made it possible to study these systems in a a non-perturbative manner. In this thesis we present state-of-the-art numerical methods to investigate the properties of strongly correlated systems, and we apply these methods to solve a couple of selected problems in quantum condensed matter theory. We start by revisiting the phase diagram of the Falicov-Kimball model on the square lattice which can be considered as a heavy-fermionic systems. This model describes an interplay between conduction electrons and heavy electrons and reveals several distinct metal-insulator phase transitions. Using a lattice Monte-Carlo method, we study the transport properties of the model. Our analysis describes the role of temperature and interaction strength on the metal-insulator phase transitions in the Falicov-Kimball model. The second part of the thesis investigate the spatial structure of the entanglement in ground and thermal statesof the transverse-field Ising chain. We use the logarithmic negativity as a measure for the entanglement between two disjoint blocks. We investigate how logarithmic negativity depends on the spatial separation between two blocks, which can be viewed as the entanglement analog of a spatial correlation function. We find sharp entanglement thresholds at a critical distance beyond which the logarithmic negativity vanishes exactly and thus the two blocks become unentangled. Our results hold even in the presence of long-ranged quantum correlations, i.e., at the system’s quantum critical point. Using Time-Evolving Block Decimation (TEBD), we explore this feature as a function of temperature and size of the two blocks. We present a simple model to describe our numerical observations. In the last part of this thesis, we introduce an order parameter for a many-body localized spin-glass (MBL-SG) phase. We show that many-body localized spin-glass order can also be detected from two-site reduced density matrices, which we use to construct an eigenstate spin-glass order parameter. We find that this eigenstate spin-glass order parameter captures spin-glass phases in random Ising chains, both in many-body eigenstates as well as in the nonequilibrium dynamics, from a local in time measurement. We discuss how our results can be used to observe MBL-SG order within current experiments in Rydberg atoms and trapped ion systems.
Strong electronic correlations are the root of many fascinating phenomena of condensed matter physics. However, they also make calculations notoriously difficult. This thesis is concerned with the development and improvement of computational methods for strongly correlated electron systems. After a brief recapitulation of the Green’s function formalism,which is the theoretical basis of most such methods, we discuss the analytical continuation from imaginary to real frequencies. Especially the maximum entropy method is explained in detail and an implementation there of is presented.The remainder of this thesis deals with methods to compute Green’s functions on thei maginary frequency axis. First, the Anderson impurity model (AIM) is considered. It can be solved numerically – a task for which several methods exist. We focus on continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo with worm sampling, through which various kinds of correlation functions can be calculated. On this basis we derive and implement symmetric improved estimators that allow for the computation of the self-energy and vertex functions where the level of stochastic noise is largely reduced with respect to conventional estimators.As a next step the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is introduced as a method to capture local correlations in the Hubbard model (HM) by self-consistently mapping it onto the AIM. We study the convergence behavior of this iterative procedure and the improvement of convergence due to mixing. Then, we compare electron scattering rates from DMFT in the weak-coupling regime of the square-lattice HM to results from Boltzmann scattering theory.While local correlations account for many interesting phenomena, such as the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition, they are not sufficient to correctly describe, e.g., the physics of phase transitions in two- or three-dimensional systems. It is thus the final step in this thesis to also include nonlocal correlations by means of the dynamical vertex approximation (DΓA). For this we develop a new self-consistency scheme, which is then applied to several systems: We study the square-lattice HM, where we compare to benchmark methods in the weak-coupling regime, but also present results for intermediate and strong coupling. Furthermore, a two-band model with doping and a three-band Wannier model for strontium vanadate are studied. As an application of our new self-consistent DΓA, we study the effects of geometrical frustration in the kagome lattice, where we also compare our results to determinant quantum Monte Carlo.