Abstract We investigate the interplay between the pseudogap state and d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional doped Hubbard model by employing an eight-site cluster dynamical mean-field theory method. By tuning electron hopping parameters, the strong-coupling pseudogap in the two-dimensional Hubbard model can be either enhanced or suppressed in the doped Mott insulator regime. We find that in underdoped cases, the closing of pseudogap leads to a significant enhancement of superconductivity, indicating competition between the two in the underdoped regime. In contrast, at large dopings, suppressing the pseudogap is accompanied by a concurrent decrease in the superconducting transition temperature T c, which can be attributed to a reduction in antiferromagnetic correlations behind both the pseudogap and superconductivity. We elucidate this evolving relationship between pseudogap and superconductivity across different doping regimes.
An intricate interplay between superconductivity, pseudogap, and Mott transition, either bandwidth driven or doping driven, occurs in materials. Layered organic conductors and cuprates offer two prime examples. We provide a unified perspective of this interplay in the two-dimensional Hubbard model within cellular dynamical mean-field theory on a 2×2 plaquette and using the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method as impurity solver. Both at half filling and at finite doping, the metallic normal state close to the Mott insulator is unstable to d-wave superconductivity. Superconductivity can destroy the first-order transition that separates the pseudogap phase from the overdoped metal, yet that normal state transition leaves its marks on the dynamic properties of the superconducting phase. For example, as a function of doping one finds a rapid change in the particle-hole asymmetry of the superconducting density of states. In the doped Mott insulator, the dynamical mean-field superconducting transition temperature T(c)(d) does not scale with the order parameter when there is a normal-state pseudogap. T(c)(d) corresponds to the local pair formation temperature observed in tunneling experiments and is distinct from the pseudogap temperature.
The energetics of the interplay between superconductivity and the pseudogap in high-temperature superconductivity is examined using the eight-site dynamical cluster approximation to the two-dimensional Hubbard model. Two regimes of superconductivity are found: a weak-coupling/large-doping regime in which the onset of superconductivity causes a reduction in potential energy and an increase in kinetic energy, and a strong-coupling regime in which superconductivity is associated with an increase in potential energy and a decrease in kinetic energy. The crossover between the two regimes is found to coincide with the boundary of the normal-state pseudogap, providing further evidence of the unconventional nature of superconductivity in the pseudogap regime. However, the absence, in the strongly correlated but nonsuperconducting state, of discernibly nonlinear response to an applied pairing field suggests that resonating valence bond physics is not the origin of the kinetic-energy driven superconductivity.
High-temperature superconductivity emerges upon doping a state of matter that is insulating because of interactions. A widely studied model considers one orbital per
CuO2 unit cell on a square lattice with a strong intraorbital repulsion that leads to a so-called Mott-Hubbard insulator. Here we solve a model that takes into account, within each unit cell, two oxygen orbitals where there is no electron-electron repulsion and a copper orbital with strong electron-electron repulsion. The insulating phase is a so-called charge-transfer insulator, not a Mott-Hubbard insulator. Using cluster dynamical mean-field theory with continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo as an impurity solver and 12 atoms per cluster, we report the normal and superconducting phase diagram of this model as a function of doping, interaction strength, and temperature. As expected, the three-orbital model is consistent with the experimental observation that doped holes are located predominantly on oxygens, a result that goes beyond the one-orbital model. Nevertheless, the phase boundary between pseudogap and correlated metal, the Widom line, and the origin of the pairing energy (kinetic vs potential) are similar to the one-orbital model, demonstrating that these are emergent phenomena characteristic of doped Mott insulators, independently of many microscopic details. Broader implications are discussed.
Cooperation and competition between the antiferromagnetic,
d-wave superconducting, and Mott-insulating states are explored for the two-dimensional Hubbard model including nearest and next-nearest-neighbor hoppings at zero temperature. Using the variational cluster approach with clusters of different shapes and sizes up to 10 sites, it is found that the doping-driven transition from a phase with microscopic coexistence of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity to a purely superconducting phase is discontinuous for strong interaction and accompanied by phase separation. At half-filling the system is in an antiferromagnetic Mott-insulating state with vanishing charge compressibility. Upon decreasing the interaction strength
U below a certain critical value of roughly ${U}_{c}\ensuremath{\sim}4$ (in units of the nearest-neighbor hopping), however, the filling-dependent magnetic transition changes its character and becomes continuous. Phase separation or, more carefully, the tendency towards the formation of inhomogeneous states disappears. This critical value is in contrast to previous studies, where a much larger value was obtained. Moreover, we find that the system at half-filling undergoes the Mott transition from an insulator to a state with a finite charge compressibility at essentially the same value. The weakly correlated state at half-filling exhibits superconductivity microscopically admixed to the antiferromagnetic order. This scenario suggests a close relation between phase separation and the Mott-insulator physics.
Proximity to a Mott insulating phase is likely to be an important physical ingredient of a theory that aims to describe high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates. Quantum cluster methods are well suited to describe the Mott phase. Hence, as a step toward a quantitative theory of the competition between antiferromagnetism and
d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates, we use cellular dynamical mean-field theory to compute zero-temperature properties of the two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model. The
d-wave order parameter is found to scale like the superexchange coupling
J for on-site interaction
U comparable to or larger than the bandwidth. The order parameter also assumes a dome shape as a function of doping, while, by contrast, the gap in the single-particle density of states decreases monotonically with increasing doping. In the presence of a finite second neighbor hopping ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, the zero-temperature phase diagram displays the electron-hole asymmetric competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity that is observed experimentally in the cuprates. Adding realistic third neighbor hopping ${t}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ improves the overall agreement with the experimental phase diagram. Since band parameters can vary depending on the specific cuprate considered, the sensitivity of the theoretical phase diagram to band parameters challenges the commonly held assumption that the doping vs
Tc∕Tcmax phase diagram of the cuprates is universal. The calculated angle-resolved photoemission spectrum displays the observed electron-hole asymmetry. The tendency to homogeneous coexistence of the superconducting and antiferromagnetic order parameters is stronger than observed in most experiments but consistent with many theoretical results and with experiments in some layered high-temperature superconductors. Clearly, our calculations reproduce important features of
d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates that would otherwise be considered anomalous from the point of view of the standard Bardeen--Cooper--Schrieffer approach. At strong coupling,
d-wave superconductivity and antiferromagnetism naturally appear as two equally important competing instabilities of the normal phase of the same underlying Hamiltonian.
Recently developed numerical methods have enabled the explicit construction of the superconducting state of the Hubbard model of strongly correlated electrons in parameter regimes where the model also exhibits a pseudogap and a Mott insulating phase. d(x(2)-y(2)) symmetry superconductivity is found to occur in proximity to the Mott insulator, but separated from it by a pseudogapped nonsuperconducting phase. The superconducting transition temperature and order parameter amplitude are found to be maximal at the onset of the normal-state pseudogap. The emergence of superconductivity from the normal state pseudogap leads to a decrease in the excitation gap. All of these features are consistent with the observed behavior of the copper-oxide superconductors.