Physical Review B
Charge and spin quantum fluctuations in the doped strongly coupled Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice
F. G. Ribeiro, Mauricio D. Coutinho-Filho
Abstract
Field-theoretic methods are used to investigate the large-$U$ Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice at half-filling and in the hole-doped regime. Within the framework of a functional-integral approach, we obtain the Lagrangian density associated with the charge and spin degrees of freedom. The Hamiltonian related to the charge degrees of freedom is exactly diagonalized. In the strong-coupling regime, we derive a perturbative low-energy theory suitable to describe the quantum antiferromagnetic phase (AF) as a function of hole doping. At half-filling, we deal with the underlying spin degrees of freedom of the quantum AF Heisenberg model by employing a second-order spin-wave analysis, in which case we have calculated the ground-state energy and the staggered magnetization; the results are in very good agreement with previous studies. Further, in the continuum, we derive a nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model with a topological Hopf term that describes the AF-VBS (valence bond solid) competition. Lastly, in the challenging doped regime, our approach allows the derivation of a $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ Hamiltonian, and the analysis of the role played by charge and spin quantum fluctuations on the ground-state energy and, particularly, on the breakdown of the AF order at a critical hole doping; the results are benchmarked against recent Grassmann tensor product state simulations.