In order to shed light whether the `even-odd conjecture' (even numbers of legs will superconduct accompanied by a spin gap while odd ones do not) for correlated electrons in ladder systems, the pairing correlation is studied for the Hubbard model on a two- and three-leg ladders. We have employed both the weak-coupling renormalization group and the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method for strong interactions. For the two-leg Hubbard ladder, a systematic QMC (with a controlled level spacings) has detected an enhanced pairing correlation, which is consistent with the weak-coupling prediction. We also calculate the correlation functions in the three-leg Hubbard ladder and show that the weak-coupling study predicts the dominant superconductivity, which refutes the naive even-odd conjecture. A crucial point is a spin gap for only some of the multiple spin modes is enough to make the ladder superconduct with a pairing symmetry (d-like here) compatible with the gapped mode. A QMC study for the three-leg ladder endorses the enhanced pairing correlation.
In the first part of our theoretical study of correlated atomic wires on substrates, we introduced lattice models for a one-dimensional quantum wire on a three-dimensional substrate and their approximation by quasi-one-dimensional effective ladder models [Abdelwahab et al., preceding paper, Phys. Rev. B 96, 035445 (2017)]. In this second part, we apply this approach to the case of a correlated wire with a Hubbard-type electron-electron repulsion deposited on an insulating substrate. The ground-state and spectral properties are investigated numerically using the density-matrix renormalization group method and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. As a function of the model parameters, we observe various phases with quasi-one-dimensional low-energy excitations localized in the wire, namely, paramagnetic Mott insulators, Luttinger liquids, and spin-
1/2 Heisenberg chains. The validity of the effective ladder models is assessed for selected parameters by studying the dependence of results on the number of legs and comparing to the full three-dimensional model. We find that narrow ladder models accurately reproduce the quasi-one-dimensional excitations of the full three-dimensional model but predict only qualitatively whether excitations are localized around the wire or delocalized in the three-dimensional substrate.