The Gutzwiller projected mean-field theory, also called plain vanilla or renormalized meanfield \ntheory, is explained and its successes and possible extensions in describing the phenomenology \nof the cuprate superconductors are discussed. Throughout, we emphasize that while this \nis a Hartree—Fock based BCS theory, it embodies fundamental differences from conventional \nperturbative many body theory which may be characterized by calling it a theory of the doped \nMott insulator.
The Gutzwiller projected mean-field theory, also called plain vanilla or renormalized meanfield \ntheory, is explained and its successes and possible extensions in describing the phenomenology \nof the cuprate superconductors are discussed. Throughout, we emphasize that while this \nis a Hartree—Fock based BCS theory, it embodies fundamental differences from conventional \nperturbative many body theory which may be characterized by calling it a theory of the doped \nMott insulator.
I present a formalism for dealing directly with the effects of the Gutzwiller projection implicit in the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model which is widely believed to underlie the phenomenology of the high-Tc cuprates. I suggest that a true BCS condensation from a Fermi-liquid state takes place but in the unphysical space prior to projection. The theory which results upon projection does not follow conventional rules of diagram theory and in fact in the normal state is a Z=0 non-Fermi liquid. Anomalous properties of the ``strange metal'' normal state are predicted and compared to experiments.
High-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides (cuprates, e.g. La2−xSrxCuO4, YBa2Cu3O6+δ or Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ) remains among the most spectacular phenomena in condensed matter physics. Since its discovery in 1986, an enormous number (∼ 105) of papers on the subject have appeared. So far, there is no single, commonly accepted theory of high-temperature superconductivity. However, it is widely believed that a basic description of this phenomenon can be provided by a single-band Hubbard model or its derivative, the t-J model. The latter model is regarded as a minimal microscopic model, capable of describing the essential aspects of the complex physics of the cuprates. Unfortunately, in general case, neither of those two models can be solved exactly and therefore various approximate methods are used. Among them, the so-called mean-field methods provide a simple, yet fairly reasonable description of the cuprates. In particular, some of the main qualitative features of the phase diagram and the essential features of electronic spectrum are roughly reproduced. A standard mean-field approach to the t-J model, known under the name of renormalized mean-field theory (RMFT) goes beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation. Consequently, its fully consistent treatment requires a novel theoretical approach. This has been our original motivation to develop a general approach to the mean-field models, which is based on the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) principle. The method is presented in detail in Part II of this Thesis, and in Part III it is applied to study RMFT of the t-J model. First, we compare the results obtained within our formalism with those of the frequently used non-variational approach based entirely on the self-consistent equations. Also, various versions of RMFT are compared, and the most satisfactory of them is selected. This optimal version is subsequently used to study different versions of the original t-J Hamiltonian. As a result, upper critical concentration and doping dependence of the selected physical quantities (e.g. the superconducting gap and the Fermi velocity) is determined at low temperatures and in the absence of external magnetic field. We compare our findings both with theoretical results obtained from the Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) methods, as well as with the experimental data for selected cuprates. We show that the version of RMFT approach formulated in this Thesis provides a reasonable qualitative and in some cases semiquantitative rationalization of the principal characteristics of the hole-doped high-temperature superconductors at the optimal doping and in the overdoped regime. Possible extensions of the proposed analysis are mentioned at the end.
The principal purpose of this topical review is to single out some of the universal features of high-temperature (high-Tc) and related strongly-correlated systems, which can be compared with experiment in a quantitative manner. The description starts with the concept of exchange-interaction-mediated (real-space) pairing, combined with strong correlations among narrow band electrons, for which the reference state is that of the Mott–Hubbard insulator. The physical discussion of concrete properties relies on variational approach, starting from generalized renormalized mean-field theory (RMFT) in the form of statistically-consistent Gutzwiller approximation (SGA), and its subsequent generalization, i.e., a systematic Diagrammatic Expansion of the Variational (Gutzwiller-type) Wave Function (DE-GWF). The solution leads to the two energy scales, one involving unconventional quasiparticles close to the Fermi energy, and the other reflecting the fully correlated state, involving electrons deeper below the Fermi surface. Those two regimes are separated by a kink in the dispersion relation, which is observed in photoemission. As a result, one obtains both the doping dependent properties in the correlated state, and effective renormalized quasiparticles. The reviewed ground-state characteristics for high-Tc systems encompass high-Tc superconductivity, nematicity, charge- (and pair-) density-wave effects, as well as non-BCS kinetic energy gain in the paired state. The calculated dynamic properties are: the universal Fermi velocity, the Fermi wave-vector, the effective mass enhancement, the pseudogap; and the d-wave gap magnitude. We discuss that, within the variational approach, the minimal realistic model is represented by the so-called t-J-U Hamiltonian. Inadequacy of the t-J and Hubbard models, particularly of their RMFT versions, is discussed explicitly. For heavy fermion systems, modeled by the Anderson lattice model and with the DE-GWF approach, we discuss the phase diagram, encompassing superconducting, Kondo insulating, ferro- and anti-ferromagnetic states. The superconducting state is then a two-d-wave gap system. If the orbital degeneracy of f-electrons is included, the coexistent ferromagnetic- (spin–triplet) superconducting phases appear and match those observed for UGe2 in a semiquantitative manner. Finally, in the second part, we generalize our approach to the collective spin and charge fluctuations in high-Tc systems, starting from variational approach, defining the saddle-point state, and combining it with 1/N expansion. The present scheme differs essentially from that starting from the saddle-point Hartree–Fock approximation, and incorporating the fluctuations in the random phase approximation (RPA). The spectrum of collective spin and charge excitations is determined for the Hubbard and t-J-U models, and subsequently compared quantitatively with recent experiments. The Appendices provide formal details to make this review self-contained.
The high energy spin excitation in the high Tc cuprates is studied in the single mode approximation for the t−t′−J model. An exact form for the mode dispersion is derived. When the Gutzwiller projected BCS state is used as the variational ground state, a spin-wave-like dispersion of about 2.2J is uncovered along the Γ=(0,0) to M=(π,0) line. Both the mode energy and the integrated intensity of the spin fluctuation spectrum are found to be almost doping independent in large doping range, which agrees very well with the observations of recent RIXS measurements. Together with previous studies on the quasiparticle properties of the Gutzwiiler projected BCS state, our results indicate that such a Fermionic RVB theory can provide a consistent description of both the itinerant and the local aspect of electronic excitations in the high Tc cuprates.
The Gutzwiller-projected BCS Hamiltonian is a useful model for high-temperature superconductivity due to its equivalence to the Heisenberg model at half filling and a close connection to the t – J model at moderate doping. In this work, a dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) is developed for the BCS Hamiltonian with d-wave pairing subject to on-site repulsive interaction, U , which we call the BCS+ U model. The large- U limit corresponds to the Gutzwiller-projected BCS Hamiltonian. It is shown that the equivalence between the Heisenberg and the Gutzwiller-projected BCS model is a manifestation of a broader duality in the BCS+ U model: for any finite U , the local dynamics of the BCS+ U model is dual at half filling with respect to the exchange between the hopping parameter, t , and the pairing amplitude, Δ. It is explicitly demonstrated in our DMFT analysis that the real superconducting gap, determined from the sharp coherence peaks in the local density of states, shows strong renormalization from its bare value as a function of U .
The U(1) slave-boson mean-field theory of the t - J model has been used by many authors as a starting point for the theoretical analysis of high - Tc cuprate superconductors. With suitable refinements, the theory can explain a lot of qualitative features of cuprates. However, the theory does not produce a correct description of the low-energy quasi-particle properties in the under-doped regime. There exist several possible schemes to resolve this difficulty, among them, one generalizes the U(1) theory to SU(2) formulation and the other introduces confinement between spinons and holons. In this thesis, we generalize the Landau transport equations of the U(1) slave-boson mean-field theory of the t - J model to the SU(2) formulation. We first generalize the SU(2) slave-boson mean-field theory to the time-dependent regime. After eliminating the boson and constraint fields exactly in the linear-response regime at zero-temperature, we obtain a set of transport equations for quasi-particles, which has a similar structure as the Landau transport equations for Fermi-liquid superconductors, with all the Landau parameters explicitly given except that besides the usual effective interaction in the particle-hole channel in Fermi-liquid theory, we find an effective interaction in the particle-particle channel, which reflects the SU(2) symmetry between particles and holes. The transport equation is SU(2) invariant at half-filling. Around q⃗ = 0, the electron density couples only to the transverse part of the external field and the quasi-particle charge is still of order x. Besides the SU(2) formulation approach, we also investigate spinon-holon confinement in the U(1) slave-boson theory. The optical and thermal conduc-tivities of U (1) slave-boson theory with confinement are calculated. For optical conductivity, we consider only the contributions from static impurities. The qualitative behavior of our results agrees with experimental results. However, to explain the experiments quantitatively, we need to study further the con-tributions from phonons. We found a phenomenological effective Hamiltonian for the quasi-particle Green's functions in the U(1) slave-boson theory with spinon-hoion confinement. Starting from this effective Hamiltonian, we exam-ine the thermal conductivity within the theory. In particular, we compare the thermal conductivity for four different situations: (i) the ordinary d-wave su-perconducting state with four Dirac Fermi points; (ii) the normal metal state with a half-pocket Fermi surface; (iii) the spinon-holon confinement supercon-ducting state with a half-pocket Fermi surface; (iv) BCS superconducting state with a half-pocket Fermi surface.