The focus of these lectures will be to describe two very useful and complementary numerical techniques: the Lanczos method and Monte Carlo simulations and to apply them to relevant physical problems like high temperature superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistance.
Microscopic models of classical degrees of freedom coupled to noninteracting fermions occur in many different contexts. Prominent examples from solid state physics are descriptions of colossal magnetoresistance manganites and diluted magnetic semiconductors, or auxiliary field methods for correlated electron systems. Monte Carlo simulations are vital for an understanding of such systems, but notorious for requiring the solution of the fermion problem with each change in the classical field configuration. We present an efficient, truncation-free O(N) method on the basis of Chebyshev expanded local Green functions, which allows us to simulate systems of unprecedented size N.
We present quantum simulation studies for a system of strongly correlated fermions coupled to local anharmonic phonons. The Monte Carlo calculations are based on a generalized version of the Projector Quantum Monte Carlo Method allowing a simultaneous treatment of fermions and dynamical phonons. The numerical simulations yield exact results in the electron-phonon parameter regime relevant for high-Tc superconductivity, which is not accessible by perturbative methods like Eliashberg-Theory. The class of electron-phonon-models covered in the simulations describes superconductivity exhibiting several features of the new high-Tc materials.
The discovery of high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates in 1986 moved strongly correlated systems from exotic worlds interesting only for pure theorists to the focus of solid-state research. In recent decades, the majority of hot topics in condensed matter physics (high-Tc superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, multiferroicity, ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors, etc.) have been related to strongly correlated transition metal compounds. The highly successful electronic structure calculations based on density functional theory lose their predictive power when applied to such compounds. It is necessary to go beyond the mean field approximation and use the many-body theory. The methods and models that were developed for the description of strongly correlated systems are reviewed together with the examples of response function calculations that are needed for the interpretation of experimental information (inelastic neutron scattering, optical conductivity, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, electron energy loss spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission, electron spin resonance, and magnetic and magnetoelectric properties). The peculiarities of (quasi-) 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3- dimensional systems are discussed.