The primary subject of this thesis is the two-dimensional Hubbard model. Using the functional renormalization Group in static approximation we will present the phase diagram of the 2D-Hubbard model and refine it by including frequency dependencies and full self-energy effects. The focus will fall on the vicinity of the quantum critical point, where the system shows a non-Fermi-liquid-like behavior. In mean-field calculations, we show that the frequency dependence of the self-energy has a substantial impact on the ground state. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the density-density interaction and the quasiparticle lifetime. During the course of our study, we will develop a saddle-point formulation of Schwinger-Dyson equations and present a new renormalization group scheme which is valid for all fermionic systems.
The primary subject of this thesis is the two-dimensional Hubbard model. Using the functional renormalization Group in static approximation we will present the phase diagram of the 2D-Hubbard model and refine it by including frequency dependencies and full self-energy effects. The focus will fall on the vicinity of the quantum critical point, where the system shows a non-Fermi-liquid-like behavior. In mean-field calculations, we show that the frequency dependence of the self-energy has a substantial impact on the ground state. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the density-density interaction and the quasiparticle lifetime. During the course of our study, we will develop a saddle-point formulation of Schwinger-Dyson equations and present a new renormalization group scheme which is valid for all fermionic systems.
We complement previous functional renormalization group (fRG) studies of the two-dimensional Hubbard model by mean-field calculations. The focus falls on Van Hove filling and the hopping amplitude ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}/t=0.341$. The fRG data suggest a quantum critical point (QCP) in this region and in its vicinity a singular fermionic self-energy $\mathrm{Im}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}(\ensuremath{\omega})/\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{-}{\left|\ensuremath{\omega}\right|}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\gamma}}$ with $\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\approx}0.26$ [K-U. Giering and M. Salmhofer, Self-energy flows in the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model, Phys. Rev. B 86, 245122 (2012)]. Here we start a more detailed investigation of this QCP using a bosonic formulation for the effective action, where the bosons couple to the order parameter fields. To this end, we use the channel decomposition of the fermionic effective action developed in C. Husemann and M. Salmhofer, Efficient Parametrization of the Vertex Function, Omega-Scheme, and the (t, t')-Hubbard Model at Van Hove Filling, Phys. Rev. B 79, 195125 (2009), which allows us to perform Hubbard-Stratonovich transformations for all relevant order parameter fields at any given energy scale $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$. We stop the flow at a scale $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ where the correlations of the order parameter field are already pronounced, but the flow is still regular, and derive the effective boson theory. It contains d-wave superconducting, magnetic, and density-density interactions. We analyze the resulting phase diagram in the mean-field approximation. We show that the singular fermionic self-energy suppresses gap formation both in the superconducting and magnetic channel already at the mean-field level, thus rounding a first-order transition (without self-energy) to a quantum phase transition (with self-energy). We give a simple effective model that shows the generality of this effect. In the two-dimensional Hubbard model, the effective density-density interaction is peaked at a nonzero frequency, so that solving the mean-field equations already involves a functional equation instead of simply a matrix equation (on a technical level, similar to incommensurate phases). Within a certain approximation, we show that such an interaction leads to a short quasiparticle lifetime.
The treatment of strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi systems constitutes one of the most challenging problems in the field of condensed matter physics. Many theoretical works focused on the strongly coupled Hubbard model, since it is expected to capture the most important physics of cuprate superconductors. Due to our methodological improvements and understanding of the frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex function, the functional renormalization group combined with the dynamical mean field theory can now be used to study competing correlations in the strongly interacting regime. While limited to moderate interaction strengths, the functional renormalization group describes efficiently systems with a hierarchy of different energy scales and competing correlations. For instance, it provides definite evidence for d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at moderate coupling. In a first project, we study the frequency dependence of the one-particle irreducible vertex function generated by the functional renormalization group flow. The frequency dependence, which becomes singular for strong interactions, appears to be important already for moderate couplings, and it cannot be represented by separate channels each depending on a single linear combination of frequencies. For strongly interacting systems, the dynamical mean field theory captures strong local correlation effects nonperturbatively. With this approximation, we study the impact of local correlations on the magnetic susceptibility. The local dynamics strongly affects the spin response function and its momentum dependence. In contrast to the widely used random-phase approximation with self-energy corrections that predicts Néel antiferromagnetic order, the local vertex corrections favor an incommensurate order similar to the ordering instability predicted by the Fermi surface geometry, as for weakly interacting systems. The dynamical mean field theory is also used as starting point for the functional renormalization group flow. We demonstrate that, due to our improvements for the parametrization of the vertex function, this approach is actually able to access the strong coupling physics. Moreover, we derive a flow scheme that conserves the local contributions and reduces the truncation error of the flow equations. In the strongly interacting regime, we capture strong d-wave pairing correlations driven by magnetic fluctuations with a mechanism similar to the one observed in the weakly interacting system.
This thesis is concerned with ground state properties of two-dimensional fermionic superfluids, in which fluctuation effects like the renormalization of the order parameter or infrared singularities are important. In the superfluid state, the fermionic two-particle vertex develops rich and singular dependences on momentum and frequency, for which an efficient parametrization in terms of boson-exchange interactions in the particle-hole and particle-particle channels is formulated. Based on this decomposition of the vertex, flow equations for the effective interactions are derived, extending existing channel-decomposition schemes to i) the description of symmetry breaking in the Cooper channel and ii) the inclusion of those two-loop renormalization contributions to the vertex that are neglected in the Katanin scheme. In the second part of this thesis, the superfluid ground state of various model systems is studied. For the attractive Hubbard model at weak coupling, the momentum and frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex and the frequency dependence of the self-energy are determined on one- and two-loop level. Results for the suppression of the superfluid gap by fluctuations are in good agreement with the literature. The two-loop approximation captures the singular infrared behaviour that is expected in a fermionic superfluid at zero temperature. For the repulsive Hubbard model at weak coupling, the momentum dependence of the two-particle vertex and the d-wave superfluid gap are determined on one-loop level as a function of the interaction, the next-nearest neighbour hopping and the fermionic density. The results for the critical scales and superfluid gaps are in qualitative agreement with the literature and suggest the existence of an optimal value of the next-nearest neighbour hopping for pairing.
This thesis details quantum-field-theoretical analyses of four distinct strongly correlated metallic systems in two spatial dimensions. It begins by examining two driving mechanisms proposed in the literature for the exotic charge-density-wave phase in monolayer vanadium diselenide. The spectral-function-fitting method used to analyse the first proves quite indeterminate, leading to only speculative conclusions. The second mechanism is tested by producing mean-field phase diagrams of the system, yielding an appreciable region of phase space in which it does drive the charge-density wave. In the next chapter, the square-lattice Hubbard model with first-, second- and third-nearest-neighbour hoppings is considered. Phase diagrams are predicted using the few-patch parquet renormalization group and compared with those produced by a colleague using another method, and with those from another patch scheme in the literature. It is concluded that few-patch parquet-renormalization-group schemes are not sophisticated enough to correctly describe many features of this system, and likely other systems. The second half of the thesis studies non-Fermi liquids. First, the non-Fermi liquid resulting from coupling finite-density fermions to a U(1) gauge field is examined. The functional renormalization group, with a soft frequency regulator for the fermions, is used, and gauge-symmetry constraints are imposed. The resulting bosonic dynamical exponent is z_A = 2, and the fermionic self-energy scales as Σ(ω,k_F) ~ √ω at small frequency. Enforcement of the symmetry constraints leaves the results largely unchanged, but does make the bosonic mass term irrelevant about criticality. In the final research chapter, the non-equilibrium modes of two-dimensional non-Fermi liquids in incipient itinerant ferromagnets are analysed. Linearized quantum Boltzmann equations are solved to find the spectra of charge- and spin-density modes. Whether collective modes are present is found to depend on both universal and non-universal information, in ways previously overlooked. Preliminary results are also given for the spectra when coupling to a classical magnetic field is reincluded.
The physics of interacting Fermi systems is extremely sensitive to the energy scale. Of particular interest is the low energy regime where correlation induced collective behavior emerges. The theory of interacting Fermi systems is confronted with the occurrence of very different phenomena along a continuum of scales calling for methods capable of computing physical observables as a function of energy scale. In this thesis, we perform a comprehensive renormalization group analysis of two and three-dimensional Fermi systems at low and zero temperature. We examine systems with spontaneous symmetry-breaking and quantum critical behavior by deriving and solving flow equations within the functional renormalization group framework. We extend the Hertz-Millis theory of quantumphase transitions in itinerant fermion systems to phases with discrete and continuous symmetry-breaking, and to quantum critical points where the zero temperature theory is associated with a non-Gaussian fixed point. The order parameter is implemented by a bosonic Hubbard-Stratonovich field, which - for continuous symmetry-breaking - splits into two components corresponding to longitudinal and transversal Goldstone fluctuations. We compute the finite temperature phase boundary near the quantum critical point explicitly including non-Gaussian fluctuations. We then set up a coupled fermion-boson renormalization group theory that captures the mutual interplay of gapless fermions with massless order parameter fluctuations when approaching a quantum critical point. As a first application, we compute the complete set of quantum critical exponents at the semimetal-to-superfluid quantum phase transition of attractively interacting Dirac fermions in two dimensions. Both, the order parameter propagator and the fermion propagator become nonanalytic functions of momenta destroying the Fermi liquid behavior. We finally compute the effects of quantum fluctuations in the superfluid ground state of an attractively interacting Fermi system, employing the attractive Hubbard model as a prototype. The flow equations capture the influence of longitudinal and Goldstone order parameter fluctuations on non-universal quantities such as the fermionic gap and the fermion-boson vertex, as well as the exact universal infrared asymptotics present in every fermionic superfluid.
We analyze the interplay of antiferromagnetism and pairing in the two-dimensional Hubbard model with a moderate repulsive interaction. Coupled charge, magnetic, and pairing fluctuations above the energy scale of spontaneous symmetry breaking are treated by a functional renormalization group flow, while the formation of gaps and order below that scale is treated in mean-field theory. The full frequency dependences of the interaction vertices and gap functions are taken into account. We compute the magnetic and pairing gap functions as a function of doping p and compare with results from a static approximation. In spite of the strong frequency dependences of the effective interactions and of the pairing gap, important physical results from previous static functional renormalization group calculations are confirmed. In particular, there is a sizable doping regime with robust pairing coexisting with N\'eel or incommensurate antiferromagnetism. The critical temperature for magnetic order is interpreted as the pseudogap crossover temperature. Computing the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature from the superfluid phase stiffness, we obtain a superconducting dome in the (p,T) phase diagram centered around 15% hole doping.