Strongly correlated systems belong to a class of materials in which electron correlations play an important role. Correlated systems display many unconventional behaviours like high temperature superconductivity, fractionalised excitations, extremely fast non-linear optical responses and many more exotic properties. Thus strong correlated materials exhibit many interesting physics which have potential applications in a wide range of areas.In this Thesis, we explore the numerical simulation of a strongly correlated quasi one dimensional organic material Mo3S7(dmit)3.First, we propose a low energy Hamiltonian which is the Hubbard model on triangular lattice at two thirds filling to describe the low energy physics of the material Mo3S7(dmit)3 based on the experimental and numerical (DFT calculations) by Llusar et al. (Llusar et al. (2004)) investigations of this material. At the heart of this model lies a confluence of many interesting phenomena in strongly correlated system such as Kondo physics, symmetryprotected-topologically-ordered phase and spin liquids.We have also employed analytical techniques to show that the low energy physics of the model in the molecular limit is captured by the spin-one Heisenberg model and the ground state is in the Haldane phase. The model can be also mapped on to the Hubbard-Kondo lattice model with ferromagnetic interactions at half filling, whose ground state is believed to be in the Haldane phase. This mapping also helps us to understand the origin of insulating behaviour in this model.Matrix product states are one of the efficient numerical techniques to investigate onedimensional strongly correlated models. We have used the matrix product state formalism of DMRG to simulate the Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice at two-thirds filling. We have demarcated different phases exhibited by this model. From ourcalculations, we find that the model displays an unusual insulating phase away from half filling and the ground states of the model are found be in the Haldane phase. Properties such as the charge gap and the spin gap for the model have been calculated and compared with experiments.The Haldane phase is a symmetry-protected-topologically-ordered phase with edge states and a non-local string order. In our simulation using matrix products states, we see all these signatures, in addition to the double degeneracy in the entanglement spectrum that characterizes the Haldane phase. We find that the Haldane phase is robust despite the charge fluctuations in the model and the parity (inversion) symmetry protects the Haldane phase in fermionic models.The final part of the thesis deals with finding the tight-binding hopping integrals of Mo3S7(dmit)3 using density functional theory. We make an unitary transformation of Kohn-Sham orbitals obtained using DFT to Wannier orbitals. Using the overlap of Wannier orbitals in the real space, we find the magnitude of tight-binding integrals. From these tight-binding integrals we arrive at low energy effective models that describe the material Mo3S7(dmit)3
Strongly correlated systems belong to a class of materials in which electron correlations play an important role. Correlated systems display many unconventional behaviours like high temperature superconductivity, fractionalised excitations, extremely fast non-linear optical responses and many more exotic properties. Thus strong correlated materials exhibit many interesting physics which have potential applications in a wide range of areas.In this Thesis, we explore the numerical simulation of a strongly correlated quasi one dimensional organic material Mo3S7(dmit)3.First, we propose a low energy Hamiltonian which is the Hubbard model on triangular lattice at two thirds filling to describe the low energy physics of the material Mo3S7(dmit)3 based on the experimental and numerical (DFT calculations) by Llusar et al. (Llusar et al. (2004)) investigations of this material. At the heart of this model lies a confluence of many interesting phenomena in strongly correlated system such as Kondo physics, symmetryprotected-topologically-ordered phase and spin liquids.We have also employed analytical techniques to show that the low energy physics of the model in the molecular limit is captured by the spin-one Heisenberg model and the ground state is in the Haldane phase. The model can be also mapped on to the Hubbard-Kondo lattice model with ferromagnetic interactions at half filling, whose ground state is believed to be in the Haldane phase. This mapping also helps us to understand the origin of insulating behaviour in this model.Matrix product states are one of the efficient numerical techniques to investigate onedimensional strongly correlated models. We have used the matrix product state formalism of DMRG to simulate the Hubbard model on the triangular necklace lattice at two-thirds filling. We have demarcated different phases exhibited by this model. From ourcalculations, we find that the model displays an unusual insulating phase away from half filling and the ground states of the model are found be in the Haldane phase. Properties such as the charge gap and the spin gap for the model have been calculated and compared with experiments.The Haldane phase is a symmetry-protected-topologically-ordered phase with edge states and a non-local string order. In our simulation using matrix products states, we see all these signatures, in addition to the double degeneracy in the entanglement spectrum that characterizes the Haldane phase. We find that the Haldane phase is robust despite the charge fluctuations in the model and the parity (inversion) symmetry protects the Haldane phase in fermionic models.The final part of the thesis deals with finding the tight-binding hopping integrals of Mo3S7(dmit)3 using density functional theory. We make an unitary transformation of Kohn-Sham orbitals obtained using DFT to Wannier orbitals. Using the overlap of Wannier orbitals in the real space, we find the magnitude of tight-binding integrals. From these tight-binding integrals we arrive at low energy effective models that describe the material Mo3S7(dmit)3
The Hubbard model is a simple but profound theoretical tool for understanding the physics underlying strongly correlated systems. This phenomenology includes, but is not limited to, metal-insulating transitions, charge and spin order (charge density/spin density waves), superconducting phases, non-Fermi liquid physics, among others. Examining one dimensional physical models described by the Hubbard Hamiltonian can teach us much about the related physics of higher dimensional systems. Applying advanced numerical computational techniques such as density matrix numerical renormalization group (DMRG) to one-dimensional manypbody model Hamiltonians allows for the calculation of ground state energies and dynamical spectral functions with extremely high precision and accuracy. This thesis explores the application of DMRG numerical techniques to one-dimensional physical systems described by Hamiltonians beyond the conventional Hubbard model, and the nuanced physical effects observed for these systems across various regimes and phases. A Wannier Hubbard chain composed of non-orthogonal overlapping atomic orbitals was transformed to an orthogonal atomic basis using a non-unitary Lowdin transformation. The calculation of energies, dynamical spectral functions and the photoemission spectrum for this Wannier Hubbard chain revealed phases not previously observed for Hubbard chains at half-filling. Additional analysis and calculations were performed for a CuO chain described by the Luther-Emery Hamiltonian that epitomizes charge-transfer physics. The motivation for studying this CuO chain was previous literature on transition metal oxides (TMOs) and the mapping of multiband Hamiltonians to single band models in certain energy regimes. Finally, we performed computational analysis for a spin-3/2 generalized Hubbard chain. By spanning the full phase space of our spin-3/2 Hubbard chain in terms of chemical potential μ and external magnetic field h we observed non-typical Cooper pairing states and novel phases for different symmetries of our Hamiltonian.--Author's abstract
Two aspects of strongly correlated electron systems are studied in this thesis. Hubbard-type models are thought to be at the basis of high-critical-temperature superconductivity. One interaction which has not had much study is the nearest-neighbour hopping of on-site singlet pairs. We refine earlier renormalization group arguments and, using the density-matrix renormalization group method, numerically confirm their prediction that a spin gap opens at infinitesimal pair-hopping amplitude V > 0 in the one-dimensional tight-binding model. We also find a phase separation transition at a finite V > 0 as well as a spin-gap transition at a finite V < 0. The exotic magnetic behaviour of heavy-fermion materials involves an interplay between the screening of local moments from each other and the formation of a magnetic state of long range order. While the single-impurity Kondo Hamiltonian is thought to model some aspects of this behaviour, the properties of the Kondo lattice model away from half-filling are largely unknown. We determine the presence of a spin-gap region in the phase diagram of the one-dimensional Heisenberg-Kondo lattice model and make predictions about certain concealed dimerization order parameters.
Materials with strongly correlated electrons show a multitude of unconventional phenomena, such as superconductivity or magnetism, that cannot be explained in a single-particle picture and necessitate to take many-body effects into account. A route to explain the origin of these phenomena consists in constructing effective models for these materials that are then solved, often using numerical techniques. Paradigmatic models for two different classes of strongly correlated electron systems are investigated in this thesis: The Hubbard model is a paradigmatic model to describe the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) and the Kondo lattice model describes the low-energy physics in heavy fermion compounds. Both models are analyzed numerically using different variations of a quantum cluster technique, the variational cluster approximation (VCA). The first part focuses on the MIT, as it is investigated experimentally in quasi-two-dimensional charge-transfer salts. Its nature and associated universality class are still heavily discussed and both experiments and theoretical approaches come to different conclusions. In this thesis, the Mott transition is investigated on an anisotropic two-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling. By using a control parameter, which induces this anisotropy, strong evidence for Mott quantum criticality is found in weakly coupled Hubbard chains. The results at zero temperature show that the second-order critical end point Tc of the interaction-driven metal-insulator transition can be tuned down to zero at strong anisotropy. Further results for the antiferromagnetic phase suggest a similar picture and motivate adding the anisotropy as a new axis in the phase diagram to account for a low-temperature critical end point of the Mott transition. The second part of this thesis focuses on unconventional phases that emerge in a paradigmatic model for heavy fermion systems, the Kondo lattice model. Using the VCA, the two-dimensional Kondo lattice model is investigated in the paramagnetic phase as well as in phases with broken symmetry. An antiferromagnetic phase at weak coupling and a phase with Kondo-singlet formation at strong coupling are analyzed. Within the antiferromagnetically ordered region, two phases with different Fermi-surface topology, which are separated by a discontinuous transition, are identified. The model is also tested for s-wave superconductivity as found recently using dynamical mean-field theory, but no indications for robust local pairing are seen within VCA. Instead, nodal d-wave superconductivity is found and analyzed in a large range of couplings and electron fillings, and its interplay with antiferromagnetic order at weak coupling is discussed. This motivates further studies on extended models that might allow for a close comparison with experiments on heavy fermion systems. Understanding the formation of unconventional phases in strongly correlated electron systems is not only of fundamental interest, but it is also essential for designing new functional materials. Although the results of approximate cluster techniques have to be handled with care, the new aspects presented in this thesis pave the way for further investigations in this direction.
Strongly correlated systems on geometrically frustrated lattices can stabilize a large number of interesting phases that includes a wide array of novel Mott insulators in both bosonic and electronic systems. Charge fluctuations in a Mott insulator are suppressed due to strong mutual interaction among the particles. The presence of frustration is of particular importance as the physics it offers is often rich, unexpectedly complicated, and continues to raise many open questions. The thesis elucidates some of these issues on a kagome lattice where strong interactions among the particles in the Mott phase impose non-trivial local constraints depending on the filling fraction on the lattice. These Mott insulators, in addition to featuring unusual magnetic and/or charge ordering, can also harbor topologically ordered states of quantum matter, e.g., resonating valence bond liquids realized in certain quantum dimer models on non-bipartite lattices. The dimer models can be regarded as low-energy effective theories for different types of bosonic models in the strong-coupling limit. Exploring this connection is a central theme of this thesis with the aim of realizing novel strongly correlated ground states. Past studies of these models have revealed the existence of various ordered and disordered phases with distinct signatures. Among these low-energy phases, the presence of a stable topological liquid at a particular point, known as Rokhsar-Kivelson point, in the phase diagram is notable. The classical versions of the dimer model are also known to have garnered a vast interest in various fields ranging from problems of pure mathematical origin to ones in physical chemistry as well as statistical physics. Pioneered by Kasteleyn, several analytical works came forward to exactly calculate the partition function of the problem from which other physical observables can be derived. Classical numerical methods are extensively applied to these models to verify the analytical predictions. We introduce a new classical algorithm here to compute the correlation functions of a classical dimer model on a square (bipartite) and a triangular (non-bipartite) lattice based on a tensor network construction. The method, called tensor network renormalization group, turns out to be a powerful tool for simulating short-ranged gapped systems as inferred from our results benchmarked against the classical Monte-Carlo technique and compared with past analytical studies. One should note that the quantum dimer model at the Rokhsar-Kivelson point can also be described as an infinite temperature canonical ensemble of classical dimers because of the particular structure of the ground state which is an equal weight superposition in the configuration manifold. The geometry of the lattice plays a pivotal role in deciding the nature of the phases that arise in the dimer models. Many physical properties of the dimer liquid phase can be extracted in the simple classical setting which certainly allows for a deep understanding of the classical models to be developed. The liquid phase is gapped on non-bipartite lattices and gapless on bipartite lattices, which is reflected in the decay of correlation functions with spatial distances. In general on non-bipartite lattices, the topological nature of the dimer liquid is characterized by a Z2 topological order which survives even when the model is perturbed away from the Rokhsar-Kivelson point. Stability of this liquid phase not only depends on the lattice geometries but notably on dimer concentrations also. In this context, we focus on a particular variant of the dimer model on a triangular lattice which is known as the quantum fully packed loop model. The model is composed of nonintersecting closed loops made of dimers and governed by the same Hamiltonian as the quantum dimer model. The loop model provides an effective low-energy description of a strongly correlated bosonic system at 1/3 filling on the kagome lattice. The corresponding Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian consists of nearest-neighbor hopping and all possible repulsive interactions within a hexagonal plaquette. Conspicuous features of the zero-temperature phase diagram for this model include (i) presence of a stable Z2 liquid even without any Rokhsar-Kivelson potential term (in distinction to the standard quantum dimer model), and (ii) an unconventional phase transition from the liquid phase to a novel crystalline phase that has nematic order (dubbed lattice nematic). For a deeper understanding of the physics, a mapping to an Ising gauge theory is presented. The gauge theoretic description provides a useful way to predict the nature of the quantum phase transition to lie in the O(3) universality class. Finally a fermionic model at the same 1/3 filling is considered in which the ground state exhibits a number of exotic local orderings resulting from the spin-charge interplay of electrons. The Hamiltonian comprises nearest-neighbor hopping, strong on-site Coulomb interaction, and repulsive interaction terms only between nearest-neighbors. In the strong correlation limit, this fermionic problem maps to a two-color fully packed loop model – a model in which the loop segments carry an additional quantum number as color on a honeycomb lattice. The effective theory is governed by coherent three-particle ring exchanges and nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic spin exchanges. The competition between these two leads to a phase diagram composed of a novel plaquette ordered state (known as the plaquette phase) that undergoes phase transition to a new kind of charge ordered state which we call a short loop phase. From our numerical analysis, we conclude that the plaquette phase features an unusual antiferromagnetic order with gapless spin excitations while the charge-ordered state is subjugated by spin fluctuations of localized electrons arranged in small hexagonal loops on the kagome lattice.
Topological Kondo insulators are strongly correlated materials where itinerant electrons hybridize with localized spins, giving rise to a topologically nontrivial band structure. Here, we use nonperturbative bosonization and renormalization-group techniques to study theoretically a one-dimensional topological Kondo insulator, described as a Kondo-Heisenberg model, where the Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain is coupled to a Hubbard chain through a Kondo exchange interaction in the p-wave channel (i.e., a strongly correlated version of the prototypical Tamm-Schockley model). We derive and solve renormalization-group equations at two-loop order in the Kondo parameter, and find that, at half filling, the charge degrees of freedom in the Hubbard chain acquire a Mott gap, even in the case of a noninteracting conduction band (Hubbard parameter U=0). Furthermore, at low enough temperatures, the system maps onto a spin-1/2 ladder with local ferromagnetic interactions along the rungs, effectively locking the spin degrees of freedom into a spin-1 chain with frozen charge degrees of freedom. This structure behaves as a spin-1 Haldane chain, a prototypical interacting topological spin model, and features two magnetic spin-1/2 end states for chains with open boundary conditions. Our analysis allows us to derive an insightful connection between topological Kondo insulators in one spatial dimension and the well-known physics of the Haldane chain, showing that the ground state of the former is qualitatively different from the predictions of the naive mean-field theory.
In the first part of the present Thesis, the ground state (GS) properties of the quasi-one-dimensional AB₂ Hubbard model are investigated taking the effects of charge and spin quantum fluctuations on equal footing. Using a functional integral approach, combined with a perturbative expansion in the strong-coupling regime, we obtain the Lagrangian density associated with the charge (Grassmann fields) and spin [SU(2) gauge fields] degrees of freedom. In the strong-coupling regime, we derive a perturbative low-energy theory suitable to describe the ferrimagnetic phase at half filling and the phases in the hole-doped regime. At half filling, a perturbative spin-wave analysis allows us to find the GS energy, sublattice magnetizations, and total spin per unit cell in the Lieb ferrimagnetic GS of the effective quantum Heisenberg model, in very good agreement with previous results. In the challenging hole doping regime away from half filling, we derive the corresponding t-J Hamiltonian. Under the assumption that charge and spin quantum correlations are decoupled, the evolution of the second-order spin-wave modes in the doped regime unveils the occurrence of spatially modulated spin structures and the emergence of phase separation in the presence of resonatingvalence-bond (RVB) states. We also calculate the doping-dependent GS energy and total spin per unit cell, including both Zeeman and orbital contributions, in which case it is shown that the spiral ferrimagnetic order collapses at a critical hole concentration. Notably, our analytical results in the doped regime are in very good agreement with density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) studies, where our assumption of spin-charge decoupling is numerically supported by the formation of charge-density waves in anti-phase with the modulation of the magnetic structure. In the second part, motivated by analogy with photonic lattices, we examine the edge states of a one-dimensional trimer lattice in the phases with and without inversion symmetry protection. In contrast to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, we show that the edge states in the inversion-symmetry broken phase of the trimer model turn out to be chiral, i.e., instead of appearing in pairs localized at opposite edges they can appear at a single edge. Interestingly, these chiral edge states remain robust to large amounts of disorder. In addition, we use the Zak phase to characterize the emergence of degenerate edge states in the inversion-symmetric phase of the trimer model. Furthermore, we capture the essentials of the whole family of trimers through a mapping onto the commensurate off-diagonal Aubry-André-Harper model, which allows us to establish a direct connection between chiral edge modes in the two models, including the calculation of Chern numbers.We thus suggest that the chiral edge modes of the trimer lattice have a topological origin inherited from this effective mapping. Also, we find a nontrivial connection between the topological phase transition point in the trimer lattice and the one in its associated two-dimensional parent system, in agreement with results in the context of Thouless pumping in photonic lattices.