In Chapter 9 we developed the picture of the asymptotics of the correlation functions of the Hubbard model for the phases with gapless excitations, i.e., for the phases with ground states belonging to regions II and IV of the ground state phase diagram discussed in Chapter 6.3 (see figures 6.4, 6.5). Our results relied on the predictions of conformal field theory which are expected to hold for a whole universality class of models related to the Hubbard model and which only need the finite size data calculated in Chapter 8 as input parameters. Correlation functions at half-filling (phase V) were considered in the previous chapter on the basis of a special continuum limit and the predictions of certain integrable quantum field theories. Here we shall consider correlation functions in the phase whose ground state is the empty band (phase I in the ground state phase diagram, figures 6.4, 6.5). At zero temperature the boundary of this phase in the μ- B plane (see figure 6.5) is determined by equation (6.20): μ < μ 0 ( B ). For small finite temperature a small number of particles is populating the system. They form a dilute, thermodynamically ideal gas with pressure proportional to the temperature (see below). We shall say the system is in the gas phase [176] and shall give a more precise meaning to this statement later.
In this chapter we want to refine the analysis of the ground state and low-lying excitations of the Hubbard model in the phases with gapless modes, i.e. phases II, IV and V discussed in Chapters 6, 7, by taking account of corrections which are important when considering Hubbard chains of finite length L . For the generic case, i.e. away from half-filling in a magnetic field, the finite-size corrections to the spectrum of the Hubbard model have been calculated by F. Woynarovich [487]. These results are the basis for our discussion in the following Chapter 9 of the asymptotic behaviour of correlation functions within the conformal approach [6, 51, 62, 75] and thereby will allow us to make contact with Haldane's Luttinger liquid approach for the description of one-dimensional strongly correlated electron systems [189–192] Generic case – the repulsive Hubbard model in a magnetic field To investigate how the thermodynamic limit is approached we have to take into account finite-size corrections in our previous derivation of integral equations from Takahashi's equations. This analysis has to be performed separately for each of the phases with gapless excitations identified before. From a technical point of view the most complex situation is found in phase IV – the partially filled, partially magnetized band with two massless modes. The finite-size scaling behaviour in the phases with a single gapless mode can be studied using the same techniques and we will point out the differences to the ‘generic’ case studied in this section later in this chapter.
At half-filling the repulsive Hubbard model is in a Mott insulating phase. The charge degrees of freedom are gapped, whereas the spin degrees of freedom remain gapless. At low energies the spin sector is actually scale invariant (apart from logarithmic corrections) and Conformal Field Theory (CFT) methods may be applied to determine the low-energy behaviour of correlation functions involving only the spin sector. On the other hand, the charge sector is not scale invariant and CFT does not provide any information for correlators involving the charge degrees of freedom. In this chapter we will show that there exists a particular continuum limit of the half filled Hubbard model, in which it is possible to calculate dynamical correlation functions by means of methods of integrable quantum field theory. We first construct a Lorentz invariant scaling limit starting from the results for the excitation spectrum and the S-matrix discussed in Chapter 7. This scaling limit is identified as the SU(2) Thirring model, which is an integrable relativistic quantum field theory. Next we discuss a continuum limit , which is obtained directly from the Hubbard Hamiltonian and describes the vicinity of the scaling limit. Construction of the scaling limit The simplest way of constructing the scaling limit is to start with the results for the dispersions of the elementary excitations and the S-matrix derived in Chapter 7 and then look for a particular limit in which Lorentz invariance is recovered.
We formulate a finite-temperature scheme of the variational cluster approximation (VCA) particularly suitable for an exact-diagonalization cluster solver. Based on the analytical properties of the single-particle Green's function matrices, we explicitly show the branch-cut structure of logarithm of the complex determinant functions appearing in the self-energy-functional theory (SFT) and whereby construct an efficient scheme for the finite-temperature VCA. We also derive the explicit formulas for entropy and specific heat within the framework of the SFT. We first apply the method to explore the antiferromagnetic order in a half-filled Hubbard model by calculating the entropy, specific heat, and single-particle excitation spectrum for different values of on-site Coulomb repulsion
U and temperature
T. We also calculate the
T dependence of the single-particle excitation spectrum in the strong coupling region, and discuss the overall similarities to and the fine differences from the spectrum obtained by the spin-density-wave mean-field theory at low temperatures and the Hubbard-I approximation at high temperatures. Moreover, we show a necessary and sufficient condition for the third law of thermodynamics in the SFT. On the basis of the thermodynamic properties, such as the entropy and the double occupancy, calculated via the
T and/or
U derivative of the grand potential, we obtain a crossover diagram in the
(U,T) plane, which separates a Slater-type insulator and a Mott-type insulator. Next, we demonstrate the finite-temperature scheme in the cluster-dynamical-impurity approximation (CDIA), i.e., the VCA with noninteracting bath orbitals attached to each cluster, and study the paramagnetic Mott metal-insulator transition in the half-filled Hubbard model. Formulating the finite-temperature CDIA, we first address a subtle issue regarding the treatment of the artificially introduced bath degrees of freedom which are absent in the originally considered Hubbard model. We then apply the finite-temperature CDIA to calculate the finite-temperature phase diagram in the
(U,T) plane. Metallic, insulating, coexistence, and crossover regions are distinguished from the bath-cluster hybridization-variational-parameter dependence of the grand-potential functional. We find that the Mott transition at low temperatures is discontinuous, and the coexistence region of the metallic and insulating states persists down to zero temperature. The result obtained here by the finite-temperature CDIA is complementary to the previously reported zero-temperature CDIA phase diagram.
The Hubbard model is investigated starting from both the small and large U limits. This allows one to derive an interpolation formula for the double occupancy at half-filling for dimensionalities d = 1, 2, 3. It shows a smooth behavior as a function of U and tends to zero only for U → ∞. A quantity that probes more sensitively the nature of the ground state is the momentum distribution function n(k). At half filling n(k) is smooth at k F both for d = 1 and d = 2, at least for not too small values of U. In one dimension for all other band fillings the slope of n(k) has a power-law singularity at k F with an exponent α increasing steadily from zero at U = 0 to 1/8 for U → ∞; the system is a "marginal Fermi liquid". A similar behavior may occur close to half-filling for d = 2, but for small densities one expects the usual step function of a normal Fermi liquid.
We discuss the entanglement spectrum of the ground state of a (1+1)-dimensional system in a gapped phase near a quantum phase transition. In particular, in proximity to a quantum phase transition described by a conformal field theory (CFT), the system is represented by a gapped Lorentz invariant field theory in the ``scaling limit'' (correlation length $\ensuremath{\xi}$ much larger than microscopic ``lattice'' scale ``
a''), and can be thought of as a CFT perturbed by a relevant perturbation. We show that for such (1+1) gapped Lorentz invariant field theories in infinite space, the low-lying entanglement spectrum obtained by tracing out, say, left half-infinite space, is precisely equal to the physical spectrum of the unperturbed gapless, i.e., conformal field theory defined on a finite interval of length ${L}_{\ensuremath{\xi}}=\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}ln(\ensuremath{\xi}/a)$ with certain boundary conditions. In particular, the low-lying entanglement spectrum of the gapped theory is the finite-size spectrum of a boundary conformal field theory, and is always discrete and universal. Each relevant perturbation, and thus each gapped phase in proximity to the quantum phase transition, maps into a particular boundary condition. A similar property has been known to hold for Baxter's corner transfer matrices in a very special class of fine-tuned, namely, integrable off-critical lattice models, for the entire entanglement spectrum and independent of the scaling limit. In contrast, our result applies to completely general gapped Lorentz invariant theories in the scaling limit, without the requirement of integrability, for the low-lying entanglement spectrum. While the entanglement spectrum of the ground state of a gapped theory on a finite interval of length
2R with suitable boundary conditions, bipartitioned into two equal pieces, turns out to exhibit a crossover between the finite-size spectra of the same CFT with in general different boundary conditions as the system size
R crosses the correlation length from the ``critical regime'' $R\ensuremath{\ll}\ensuremath{\xi}$ to the ``gapped regime'' $R\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\xi}$, the physical spectrum on a finite interval of length
R with the same boundary conditions, on the other hand, is known to undergo a dramatic reorganization during the same crossover from being discrete to being continuous.