This thesis examines the properties of a new microscopic model for non-Fermi-liquid behavior and d-wave pairing in a strongly correlated quasi-two-dimensional (2D) electron gas with purely repulsive interactions. Themicroscopic Hamiltonian for this system involves a nearest neighbor electron hopping matrix element t, an on-site Coulom b repulsion U , and a nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion V. We suggest that nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion on the energy scale of t stabilizes a state in which electrons undergo a �somersault� in their internal spin-space (spin-flux). Spin-flux is a new form of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a strongly correlated electron system in which the Hamiltonian acquires a term with the symmetry of spin-orbit coupling at the mean-field level. Spin-flux modifies the single quasi-particle dispersion relations from that of a conventional antiferro-magnet (AFM ). When this spin-1/2 A FM insulator is doped, the charge carriers are mobile, charged, bosonic meron-vortex solitons accompanied by unoccupied states deep inside the Mott-Hubbard charge-transfer gap. This model provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport properties for low and intermediate doping, (ii) mid-infrared optical absorption, (iii) destruction of A FM long range order with doping, (iv) angled resolved spectroscopy (ARPES), (v) d-wave preformed charge carrier pairs, an d (vi) a transition from the non-Fermi liquid state to a conventional Fermi-liquid metal for large doping. The approximations used to study the 2D spin-flux Hubbard model are the unrestricted Hartree-Fock Approximation and the Configuration Interaction (C l) Method. In ID, the C l approximation leads to excellent agreement with the exact Bethe Ansatz solution of the Hubbard model, as well as a clear demonstration of the spin-charge separation: the charge of the doping hole is carried by charged bosonic domain-walls, while the spin of the doping hole is carried by neutral fermionic domain-walls. In 2D, the C l method suggests a precursor to the spin-charge separation: addition of a single hole leads to the appearance of a charge-carrying vortex (the meron-vortex) bound to a spin-carrying antivortex.
This thesis examines the properties of a new microscopic model for non-Fermi-liquid behavior and d-wave pairing in a strongly correlated quasi-two-dimensional (2D) electron gas with purely repulsive interactions. Themicroscopic Hamiltonian for this system involves a nearest neighbor electron hopping matrix element t, an on-site Coulom b repulsion U , and a nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion V. We suggest that nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion on the energy scale of t stabilizes a state in which electrons undergo a �somersault� in their internal spin-space (spin-flux). Spin-flux is a new form of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a strongly correlated electron system in which the Hamiltonian acquires a term with the symmetry of spin-orbit coupling at the mean-field level. Spin-flux modifies the single quasi-particle dispersion relations from that of a conventional antiferro-magnet (AFM ). When this spin-1/2 A FM insulator is doped, the charge carriers are mobile, charged, bosonic meron-vortex solitons accompanied by unoccupied states deep inside the Mott-Hubbard charge-transfer gap. This model provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport properties for low and intermediate doping, (ii) mid-infrared optical absorption, (iii) destruction of A FM long range order with doping, (iv) angled resolved spectroscopy (ARPES), (v) d-wave preformed charge carrier pairs, an d (vi) a transition from the non-Fermi liquid state to a conventional Fermi-liquid metal for large doping. The approximations used to study the 2D spin-flux Hubbard model are the unrestricted Hartree-Fock Approximation and the Configuration Interaction (C l) Method. In ID, the C l approximation leads to excellent agreement with the exact Bethe Ansatz solution of the Hubbard model, as well as a clear demonstration of the spin-charge separation: the charge of the doping hole is carried by charged bosonic domain-walls, while the spin of the doping hole is carried by neutral fermionic domain-walls. In 2D, the C l method suggests a precursor to the spin-charge separation: addition of a single hole leads to the appearance of a charge-carrying vortex (the meron-vortex) bound to a spin-carrying antivortex.
We investigate a microscopic model for strongly correlated electrons with both on-site and nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion on a two-dimensional (2D) square lattice. This exhibits a state in which electrons undergo a ``somersault'' in their internal spin space (spin flux) as they traverse a closed loop in external coordinate space. When this spin-21 antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator is doped, the ground state is a liquid of charged, bosonic meron vortices, which for topological reasons are created in vortex-antivortex pairs. The magnetic exchange energy of the distorted AFM background leads to a logarithmic vortex-antivortex attraction which overcomes the direct Coulomb repulsion between holes localized on the vortex cores. This leads to the appearance of preformed charged pairs. We use the configuration interaction (CI) method to study the quantum translational and rotational motion of various charged magnetic solitons and soliton pairs. The CI method systematically describes fluctuation and quantum tunneling corrections to the Hartree-Fock approximation. We find that the lowest-energy charged meron-antimeron pairs exhibit d-wave rotational symmetry, consistent with the symmetry of the cuprate superconducting order parameter. For a single hole in the 2D AFM plane, we find a precursor to spin-charge separation in which a conventional charged spin polaron dissociates into a singly charged meron-antimeron bound pair. This model provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport properties, (ii) d-wave preformed charged carrier pairs, (iii) midinfrared optical absorption, (iv) destruction of AFM long-range order with doping and other magnetic properties, and (v) certain aspects of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.
The Fermi liquid theory is a central concept in modern condensed matter physics used to describe conventional metals. A state of this universality class consists of well-defined quasiparticles, which occupy a finite number of states within a Fermi volume defined in momentum space. According to the Luttinger’s theorem, such a state encloses a Fermi volume proportional to the electron density modulo the filled bands if no symmetry is broken. In the past decades strong deviations from Fermi liquid theory have been observed in the scaling behavior of thermodynamic observables in different materials, among which are for instance cuprates and iron pnictides. This thesis is about two prototypical systems that can not be described by Fermi liquid theory. The first part of this work investigates two-dimensional effective models, which are in a Mott insulating state at half-filling and have a finite conductivity when doped with holes. In such a Mott insulating state, the charge carriers are strongly localized due to the Coulomb repulsion. Hence, strong correlations are assumed to have a strong impact on the formation of the ground state, also in the regime of small hole concentration. In a first project we have used a so-called spinon dopon mean-field theory to represent the two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model with strong on-site repulsive interaction in effective degrees of freedom, in which the holes can be embedded into a quantum spin liquid. The corresponding SU(2) invariant ground state belongs to the class of fractionalized Fermi liquids. In a second project we investigate a quantum dimer model, an effective model based on a Hilbert space spanned by short range singlets and bound states of holes and spins. The focus here is on the calculation of the hole-part of the electron spectral function by using exact diagonalization and its comparison with two analytic methods, a diagrammatic computation based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation and a so-called two-mode approximation. The electron spectral function shows a similar analytic form in momentum space between nodal and antinodal point when compared to results from photoemission spectroscopy experiments on cuprates. Furthermore, in a subsequent work we calculate the exact ground state of the quantum dimer model along a certain parameter line. In order to analyze the behavior of the elctron spectral function when increasing the density of holes, we investigate the Fermi-Hubbard model in a current project using a dynamical mean-field approach. To solve the 4-site cluster impurity problem, we use a numerical renormalization group approach. However, numerical limitations force us to restrict the analysis to spin-polarized baths. According to the spectral data, the system is similar to the SU(2) invariant case at half-filling in a Mott insulating state and posseses a momentum-selective energy gap at finite doping. The topology of the Fermi surface shows a Lifshitz transition when increasing the hole concentration. Here, the curvature of the Fermi surface changes from electron- to hole-like. For comparison we apply the dynamical mean-field theory also to the quantum dimer model and observe that the electron spectral functions at finite doping are qualitatively similar to that of the two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model. The second half of the work is about Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory, which is used to describe the low-energy effective degrees of freedom of one-dimensional systems. Here, we first discuss a conceptional extension of the operator-based bosonization theory for one-dimensional systems. This extension is especially suited for inhomogeneous one-dimensional systems. First, we investigate a one-dimensional system with a local interation potential and compute an exact solution of the single particle propagator at T = 0. The critical exponent of the single particle propagator has an unconventional form as a function of the microscopic Tomonaga-Luttinger parameters, which is not covered by the original Luttinger paradigm postulated by F. Duncan M. Haldane. In a second project on one-dimensional systems, we study the impact of scattering processes among bosonic low-energy excitations on the thermalization process. Such scattering processes are irrelevant on large length scales, however strongly affect the dynamics. In our analytic analysis we focus on a experimental setup, where a one-dimensional Bose gas is instantaneously splitted in two identical, however strongly correlated, halves of one-dimensional electronic systems. In the following, the corresponding non-equilibrium state runs through multiple regimes in time, such as a metastable prethermalization regime. However, above a certain threshold in time such scattering processes cause an effective thermalization of the system. In order to demonstrate this, we compute the kinetic equation in the Keldysh field integral formalism from a diagrammatic expansion based on a self-consistent Born approximation.
One-dimensional conductors are a long-standing topic of research with direct applications to organic conductors and mesoscopic rings. The discovery of the ceramic high-temperature superconductors has revitalized the interest in low-dimensional charge and spin fluctuations of highly correlated electron systems. Several mechanisms proposed to explain the high-T c superconductors invoke properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, but probably also some one-dimensional aspects are relevant. Numerous one-dimensional models for correlated electrons have been studied with various approximate, asymptotically exact and exact methods. These results lead to the concept of Luttinger liquid for interacting electron gases without excitation gaps (metallic systems). Characteristic of Luttinger liquids are the charge and spin separation, marginal Fermi liquid properties, e.g. the absence of quasiparticles in the vicinity of the Fermi surface, nonuniversal power-law singularities in the one-particle spectral function and the related absence of a discontinuity in the momentum distribution at the Fermi level, the power-law decay of correlation functions for long times and large distances, persistent currents in finite rings, etc. Due to the peculiarities of the phase space in one dimension some of the models have sufficient conserved currents to be completely integrable. We review exact results derived within the framework of Bethe's ansatz for integrable one-dimensional models of correlated electrons. The Bethe-ansatz method is presented by explicitly showing the steps leading to the solution of the N-component electron gas interacting via a δ-function potential (repulsive and attractive interaction), which is probably the simplest model of correlated electrons. Emphasis is given to the procedure to extract the groundstate properties, the classification of states, the excitation spectrum, the thermodynamics and finite size effects, such as critical exponents of correlation functions and persistent currents. The method is then applied to numerous other models, e.g. (i) a two-band model involving attractive and repulsive potentials and crystalline fields splitting the bands, (ii) the traditional Hubbard chain with attractive and repulsive U, (iii) the degenerate Hubbard model with repulsive U, which displays a metal–insulator transition at a finite U, (iv) a two-band Hubbard model with repulsive U, (v) the traditional supersymmetric t–J model (vi) a two-band supersymmetric t–J model with band-splitting and (vii) the N-component supersymmetric t–J model. Finally, results for models with long-range interactions, in particular r-2 and sinh -2(r) potentials, are briefly reviewed.
Strong electron correlations lie at the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. Its essence is believed to be captured by the Fermi-Hubbard model of repulsively interacting fermions on a lattice. Here we report on the site-resolved observation of charge and spin correlations in the two-dimensional (2D) Fermi-Hubbard model realized with ultracold atoms. Antiferromagnetic spin correlations are maximal at half-filling and weaken monotonically upon doping. At large doping, nearest-neighbor correlations between singly charged sites are negative, revealing the formation of a correlation hole, the suppressed probability of finding two fermions near each other. As the doping is reduced, the correlations become positive, signaling strong bunching of doublons and holes, in agreement with numerical calculations. The dynamics of the doublon-hole correlations should play an important role for transport in the Fermi-Hubbard model.
The effect of doping in the two-dimensional Hubbard model is studied within finite temperature exact diagonalization combined with cluster dynamical mean field theory. By employing a mixed basis involving cluster sites and bath molecular orbitals for the projection of the lattice Green's function onto 2x2 clusters, a considerably more accurate description of the low frequency properties of the self-energy is achieved than in a pure site picture. The transition from Fermi-liquid to non-Fermi-liquid behavior for decreasing hole doping is studied as a function of Coulomb energy, next-nearest neighbor hopping, and temperature. In particular, the self-energy component Sigma_X associated with X=(pi,0) is shown to exhibit an onset of non-Fermi-liquid behavior as the hole doping decreases below a critical value delta_c. The imaginary part of Sigma_X(omega) then develops a collective mode above E_F, which exhibits a distinct dispersion with doping. Accordingly, the real part of Sigma_X(omega) has a positive slope above E_F, giving rise to an increasing particle-hole asymmetry as the system approaches the Mott transition. This behavior is consistent with the removal of spectral weight from electron states close to E_F and the opening of a pseudogap which increases with decreasing doping. The phase diagram reveals that delta_c = 0.15 ... 0.20 for various system parameters. For electron doping, the collective mode of Sigma_X(omega) and the concomitant pseudogap are located below the Fermi energy which is consistent the removal of spectral weight from hole states just below E_F. The critical doping which marks the onset of non-Fermi-liquid behavior, is systematically smaller than for hole doping.
This dissertation discussed four low-dimensional systems: Hubbard ladder and its 2D extension, anisotropic Hubbard ladder, one-dimensional two-orbital t-J model, and Kondo model. All of them are of strongly correlated. Doped cuprates, as strongly correlated systems, have attracted a lot of attention in the condensed matter physics community, not just from the purely theoretical perspective, but also due to the novel applications beyond the conventional semiconductor paradigm. They display complicated phase diagram, defying the conventional rigid band theory, shaking our common sense and driving us to wrestle with many-body physics. With the aid of advanced experimental techniques such as ARPES, its various exotic electronic structure, such as waterfalls, hole pockets, Fermi arcs and kinks have been unveiled and remain open to interpretation. To attack such complicated problems, people usually build various models to mimic the CuO2 planes, which is the common feature of various cuprate compounds and is believed to be mainly responsible for their complicated properties, especially the high temperature superconductivity. In Chapter 3, we simulated the spectral properties of the 2- leg single-band Hubbard ladder and its 2-dimensional extension at and away from half-lling using the numerical tool: the combination of Cluster Perturbation Theory (CPT) with the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method (tDMRG) as a solver. The main features of the spectrum can be described with a mean-eld dispersion, with kinks and pseudogap traced back to scattering between spin and charge degrees of freedom. As a bonus, we nd that the spectrum of hubbard ladder involves spin-polaron, the bound state of spinon and holon. Interacting one-dimensional electron systems generically behave dierent from higher dimensional systems in the sense that its low-energy excitations are described by Luttinger liquid theory as collective bosonic modes carrying spin and charge separately, the so-called spinons and holons, rather than the coherent quasi-particles in Fermi liquid theory. This phenomenon is known as spin-charge separation, an intrinsic property of 1D system. It can be thought of as a particular case of electron fractionalization. When multiple 1D chains get coupled, how the picture changes? In Chapter 4, we study the spectral function of the anisotropic 2-leg Hubbard ladder, one of the simplest multiple-chain systems. The spectrum can be understood as the scattering resultants of spinon and holons: As the inter-chain hopping is increased, the continuum in the bonding channel moves to higher energies and spinon and holon branches merge into a single coherent quasi-particle band. Simultaneously, the spectrum undergoes a crossover from a regime with two minima at incommensurate values of kx (a Mott insulator), to one with a single minimum at kx = (a band insulator). In addition, the spectrum contains a continuum of scattering states consisting of a triplon and a polaron, accompanied by the formation of bound states with higher spin 3 2 , ferromagnetic \spin bags" in which the hole can move freely. To analyze the formation of quasi-particle, we study the time-evolution of charge and spin degrees of freedom in real space after a hole is injected, which indicates that incoherent holons and spinons can emerge into polarons, that can propagate coherently, after a characterstic time . Multiorbital systems can involve Mott and Hund physics, and are rich in various phenomena, including orbital selective Mott transitions, spin-orbital separations, and pairing density wave due to the complex interplay between spin, charge and orbital degrees of freedom. Therefore, it can capture many unique features in real strongly correlated systems, such as iron pnictides and ruthenates, and thus attract a lot of investigations. In Chapter 5, we comprehensively study a one-dimensional two-orbital model at and below quarter lling, which realizes a number of unconventional phases, by means of DMRG and some analytical calculations. In particular, we nd that the system supports an extensive density wave in which excitons quasicondense with nite center-of-mass momentum. In this phase, excitons behave as hardcore bosons without charge order. In addition, excitons can pair to form biexcitons in a state that is close to a charge density wave instability. Finally, a genuine orbital-selective paired state (metallic plus spin-gapped superconductor) can be realized when pairing dominates over the interorbital repulsion. Kondo problem, as one of the most studied and best understood correlated systems, has been studied by various techniques, but the internal structure of its ground state has two deeply con icting pictures: At strong coupling limit, the system is essentially composed of a scattering center, which is a tightly bound singlet formed by the impurity and a localized electron at r0, and the remaining conduction electrons that are decoupled to the impurity and remain almost \free". At weak enough couplings, the singlet extends to the entire volume and the impurity will couple mostly to one electron at the Fermi level. In chapter 6, we provide a coherent picture to unveil the puzzle in the context of quantum information theory by deconstructing the Kondo singlet, both in real and energy space, and measuring the spin correlations between the impurity and the invididual free electron eigenstate based on two dierent measures. As a bonus, we can identify \projected natural orbitals" that can be used as a \good" approximate wavefunctions for simulations, and a quasi-order parameter that determines the crossover from weak to strong coupling regimes and furthermore oers the means to measure the Kondo screening length K. This screening length might be used to characterize the \size" of the Kondo cloud.