The physics of strongly correlated quantum particles within a flat band was originally explored as a route to itinerant ferromagnetism and, indeed, a celebrated theorem by Lieb rigorously establishes that the ground state of the repulsive Hubbard model on a bipartite lattice with an unequal number of sites in each sublattice must have nonzero spin
S at half filling. Recently, there has been interest in Lieb geometries due to the possibility of topological insulator, nematic, and Bose-Einstein condensed (BEC) phases. In this paper, we extend the understanding of the attractive Hubbard model on the Lieb lattice by using determinant quantum Monte Carlo to study real space charge and pair correlation functions not addressed by the Lieb theorems. Specifically, our results show unusual charge and charge transfer signatures within the flat band, and a reduction in pairing order at $\ensuremath{\rho}=2/3$ and $\ensuremath{\rho}=4/3$, the points at which the flat band is first occupied and then completely filled. We compare our results to the case of flat bands in the Kagome lattice and demonstrate that the behavior observed in the two cases is rather different.
Motivated by recent experiments realizing correlated phenomena and superconductivity in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals devices, we consider the general problem of whether correlation effects may be enhanced by modifying band structure while keeping a fixed weak interaction strength. Using determinantal quantum Monte Carlo, we study the 2D Hubbard model for two different band structures: a regular nearest-neighbor tight-binding model and a partially flat-band structure containing a nondispersing region, with identical total noninteracting bandwidth
Wtot. For both repulsive and attractive weak interactions ($|U|\ensuremath{\ll}{W}_{\mathrm{tot}}$), correlated phenomena are significantly stronger in the partially flat model. In the repulsive case, even with
U being an order of magnitude smaller than
Wtot, we find the presence of a Mott insulating state near half filling of the flat region in momentum space. In the attractive case, where generically the ground state is superconducting, the partially flat model exhibits significantly enhanced superconducting transition temperatures. These results suggest the possibility of engineering correlation effects in materials by tuning the noninteracting electronic dispersion.
One promising way to enhance superconductivity is to have coexisting wide and incipient narrow bands, where the Fermi level intersecting the wide band lies just above the narrow band, by which finite-energy spin fluctuations act as glue to mediate pair scattering. As an extreme case of the narrow band dispersion, we investigate spin-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity in two-dimensional Hubbard models with an incipient flat band. For all of the systems investigated in this study, the Kagome, Lieb, and bilayer square lattices with a flat band, we find that spin-singlet pairing superconductivity is enhanced when the flat band is nearly fully filled, due to the interband pair scattering even when the flat band becomes dispersive by correlation effects. Among these models, enhancement of superconductivity is weak in the Lieb lattice, possibly because the density of states of the wide band goes to zero at the Dirac point where the flat and wide bands intersect. Also, when the electron density is smaller so that the flat band approaches half-filling, ferromagnetic spin fluctuations and spin-triplet pairing arises, which does not develop strongly compared to the case of the spin-singlet pairing for the incipient band situation.
Our previous mean-field study concerning superconducting pairings in the extended Hubbard model with on-site repulsive and intersite attractive interaction and arbitrary electron density is extended to include the effects of nearest-neighbor exchange (
J) and correlated hopping (
K) interaction. Detailed numerical analysis of
s-,
p-, and
d-wave pairing solutions is performed for the two-dimensional square lattice with nearest- (
t) and next-nearest- (
t2) neighbor hopping, and the resulting mutual stability phase diagrams are given as a function of band filling and the interaction parameters. Antiferromagnetic exchange can enhance both the
d-wave and the extended
s-wave pairing. If it prevails over the repulsive intersite density-density interaction, such a term can be a leading mechanism for superconductivity. However, its effects strongly depend on the band filling and the
tt2 ratio, giving in particular for
t2=0 s-wave (
d-wave) pairing as most favorable in the low (high) density limit, but increasing
t2 can even reverse this tendency. The correlated hopping term which breaks the electron-hole symmetry affects
s-wave pairing mostly. A condensation transition (phase separation), possible in the presence of the attractive density-density interaction, is also analyzed within the random-phase approximation, and stability conditions of such an electron droplet phase with respect to other types of ordering are determined as a function of the band filling for the two-dimensional square lattice.
Motivated by the recent discovery of anomalously strong nearest-neighbor attraction in the one-dimensional hole-doped cuprate ${\text{Ba}}_{2+x}{\text{Sr}}_{x}{\text{CuO}}_{3+\ensuremath{\delta}}$, we investigate the
d-wave superconducting property of an extended checkerboard Hubbard model, which includes an intraplaquette nearest-neighbor attraction
V. Our quantum Monte Carlo simulations reveal that, for small interplaquette hopping integral ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$,
V induces a drastic enhancement of long-range
d-wave pairing correlations in the parameter range of $0.0\ensuremath{\le}U\ensuremath{\le}6.0t$ (
t is the intraplaquette hopping integral) when the electron density lies between half-filling and quarter-filling. At $V=\ensuremath{-}0.4t$, one order of magnitude larger
d-wave pairing correlations are observed compared to the ones at
V=0.0t and, more importantly, they exceed the values of the free electron system, signifying the existence of
d-wave superconductivity. The exact diagonalization calculations on the $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ plaquette indicate that the enhancement of
d-wave pairing correlations can be attributed to the
V-induced enhancement of pair-binding energy. Our findings provide a new perspective on the realization of high-temperature
d-wave superconductivity via the combination of nearest-neighbor attraction and electronic inhomogeneity.
We study the attractive Hubbard model on the Lieb lattice to understand the normal state above the superconducting critical temperature in a flat band system. We use cluster dynamical mean-field theory to compute the two-particle susceptibilities with full quantum fluctuations included in the cluster. At interaction strengths lower than the hopping amplitude, we find that the normal state on the flat band shows insulating behavior stemming from the localization properties of the flat band. A flat-band enhanced pseudogap with a depleted spectral function arises at larger interactions.