In this thesis I present results concerning realistic calculations of correlated fermionic many-body systems. One of the main objectives of this work was the implementation of a hybridization expansion continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-HYB) algorithm and of a flexible self-consistency loop based on the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). DMFT enables us to treat strongly correlated electron systems numerically. After the implementation and extensive testing of the program we investigated different problems to answer open questions concerning correlated systems and their numerical treatment.
In this thesis I present results concerning realistic calculations of correlated fermionic many-body systems. One of the main objectives of this work was the implementation of a hybridization expansion continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-HYB) algorithm and of a flexible self-consistency loop based on the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). DMFT enables us to treat strongly correlated electron systems numerically. After the implementation and extensive testing of the program we investigated different problems to answer open questions concerning correlated systems and their numerical treatment.
In this thesis I present results concerning realistic calculations of correlated fermionic many-body systems. One of the main objectives of this work was the implementation of a hybridization expansion continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-HYB) algorithm and of a flexible self-consistency loop based on the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). DMFT enables us to treat strongly correlated electron systems numerically. After the implementation and extensive testing of the program we investigated different problems to answer open questions concerning correlated systems and their numerical treatment.
Correlated electron systems exhibit a variety of intriguing emergent phenomena, including Mott physics, pseudogap behavior, and unconventional superconductivity. One of the most widely used numerical approaches for investigating these systems is dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). This dissertation addresses two related problems: how to develop better quantum impurity solvers for DMFT and how to use DMFT results to gain a better understanding of correlated electron systems. The first part of this dissertation develops numerical methods for solving quantum impurity problems, which constitute the central computational task in DMFT calculations. In Chap. 4, we develop a method that combines a tensor-train numerical integration scheme with the inchworm hybridization expansion for quantum impurity problems. Benchmarks on spinless, single-orbital, and multi-orbital impurity models demonstrate the convergence of the Green’s functions to exact or reference results and identify the regimes in which tensor-train compression of Feynman diagrams and the inchworm expansion itself are effective. In Chap. 5, we introduce the concept of counterterms within the hybridization expansion and apply it to a bare hybridization expansion solver that relies on a sum-of-exponentials integration technique. Tests on spinless, multi-orbital, and realistic embedding impurity problems show that counterterms can significantly reduce the required perturbative order and improve the efficiency of hybridization-expansion calculations. The second part of this dissertation applies the cluster extension of DMFT to the single-band Hubbard model. In Chap. 6, we introduce a fluctuation decomposition for the self-energy that eliminates the Fierz ambiguity encountered in conventional fluctuation diagnostics of the Hubbard model. The resulting analysis shows that spin fluctuations make an important contribution to the pseudogap self-energy, while multi-boson contributions are also necessary for a complete description. In Chap. 7, we analyze the spin-fermion coupling and its role in d-wave pairing. Our calculations show that, for antinodal fermions in the pseudogap regime, their coupling to antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations is strongly enhanced relative to the non-interacting limit. A modified Bethe–Salpeter equation analysis further shows that this enhanced spin–fermion coupling boosts the spin-fluctuation-induced contribution to the d-wave pairing susceptibility.
We present two related customized software packages, Hubb_DMFT and Wan2mb_DMFT, designed to solve the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT) equations for strongly correlated electron systems. Hubb_DMFT is adjusted for the single-band Hubbard model, providing a fast way to calculate the local self-energy, as well as the two-particle fermion and triangular fermion-boson charge and spin vertices, while Wan2mb_DMFT extends this capability to realistic multi-orbital systems, directly interfacing Wannier tight-binding Hamiltonians with many-body solvers. Both codes are based on iQIST v.0.7 impurity solver and utilize a modified and internally integrated Continuous-Time Quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) core with the hybridization expansion (CT-HYB) framework and improved self-energy and vertex estimators for density-density interaction, ensuring numerically exact solutions for quantum impurity problems.
Abstract: Originally designed for the study of strong electronic correlations in model Hamiltonians, dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) has become, in combination with density functional theory (DFT), a powerful tool for ab initio simulations of real materials. At the heart of DMFT lies the solution of a quantum impurity problem. While only the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) impurity solvers yield (statistically) exact solutions of a general impurity problem, they are quite complex and computationally expensive. Hence, in this thesis we are interested in improving the CT-QMC impurity solvers. After a short introduction to DMFT and its cluster extensions, we begin by reviewing two of the CT-QMC impurity solvers, the interaction expansion or “Rubtsov” solver (CT- INT) and the hybridization expansion solver (CT-HYB). Focussing on the latter, which is the algorithm of choice within real material simulations, we then show how to reduce a sign problem, allowing us to address the unusual criticality found in layered organic superconductors. With high-T c superconductivity as example, we further discuss how to ensure ergodicity of the CT-HYB solver in the context of broken symmetries. Finally, algorithmic optimizations of CT-HYB are presented and combined, leading to speedups of up to 500 within the context of real material simulations. // Résumé: Initialement conçue pour traiter les fortes corrélations électroniques dans des hamiltoniens modèles, la théorie du champ moyen dynamique (DMFT) est devenue, en combinaison avec la théorie de la densité fonctionnelle (DFT), un outil puissant pour la simulation de matériaux réels. Au cœur de la DMFT se trouve la solution d'un modèle d'impureté quantique. Seulement les solutionneurs d'impureté Monte Carlo en temps continu (CT-QMC) donnent des solutions exactes. En même temps, ces solutionneurs sont plutôt complexes et gourmands en temps de calcul. Le but de cette thèse est donc d'améliorer les solutionneurs d'impureté CT-QMC. Après une courte introduction à la DMFT et à ses extensions pour les amas, on commence par une revue de deux des solutionneurs CT-QMC, celui en développement d'interaction ou de "Rubtsov" (CT-INT) et celui en développement d'hybridation (CT-HYB). Mettant l'accent sur le dernier, qui est l'algorithme de choix dans le cadre des matériaux réels, on montre alors comment réduire un problème de signe, nous permettant ainsi de traiter la criticalité inhabituelle des organiques en couche. Avec la supraconductivité à haute température critique comme exemple, on discute ensuite comment assurer l'ergodicité du solutionneur CT-HYB dans le cadre des symétries brisées. Finalement, des optimisations algorithmiques sont présentées et combinées, amenant à des accélérations allant jusqu'à un facteur de 500 dans le contexte des matériaux réels.
The main focus of this thesis is the detailed investigation of computational methods to tackle strongly correlated materials in which a rich variety of exotic phenomena are found. A many-body problem with sizable electronic correlations can no longer be explained by independent-particle approximations such as density functional theory (DFT) or tight-binding approaches. The influence of an electron to the others is too strong for each electron to be treated as an independent quasiparticle and consequently those standard band-structure methods fail even at a qualitative level. One of the most powerful approaches for strong correlations is the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT), which has enlightened the understanding of the Mott transition based on the Hubbard model. For realistic applications, the dynamical mean-field theory is combined with various independent-particles approaches. The most widely used one is the DMFT combined with the DFT in the local density approximation (LDA), so-called LDA+DMFT. In this approach, the electrons in the weakly correlated orbitals are calculated by LDA while others in the strongly correlated orbitals are treated by DMFT. Recently, the method combining DMFT with Hedin's GW approximation was also developed, in which the momentum-dependent self-energy is also added. In this thesis, we discuss the application of those methodologies based on DMFT. First, we apply the dynamical mean-field theory to solve the 3-dimensional Hubbard model in Chap. 3. In this application, we model the interface between the thermodynamically coexisting metal and Mott insulator. We show how to model the required slab geometry and extract the electronic spectra. We construct an effective Landau free energy and compute the variation of its parameters across the phase diagram. Finally, using a linear mixture of the density and double-occupancy, we identify a natural Ising order parameter which unifies the treatment of the bandwidth and filling controlled Mott transitions. Secondly, we study the double-counting problem, a subtle issue that arises in LDA+DMFT. We propose a highly precise double-counting functional, in which the intersection of LDA and DMFT is calculated exactly, and implement a parameter-free version of the LDA+DMFT that is tested on one of the simplest strongly correlated systems, the H2 molecule. We show that the exact double-counting treatment along with a good DMFT projector leads to very accurate and total energy and excitation spectrum of H2 molecule. Finally, we implement various versions of GW+DMFT, in its fully self-consistent way, one shot GW approximation, and quasiparticle self-consistent scheme, and studied how well these combined methods perform on H2 molecule as compared to more established methods such as LDA+DMFT. We found that most flavors of GW+DMFT break down in strongly correlated regime due to causality violation. Among GW+DMFT methods, only the self-consistent quasiparticle GW+DMFT with static double-counting, and a new method with causal double-counting, correctly recover the atomic limit at large H-atom separation. While some flavors of GW+DMFT improve the single-electron spectra of LDA+DMFT, the total energy is best predicted by LDA+DMFT, for which the exact double-counting is known, and is static.
Strong electronic correlations are the root of many fascinating phenomena of condensed matter physics. However, they also make calculations notoriously difficult. This thesis is concerned with the development and improvement of computational methods for strongly correlated electron systems. After a brief recapitulation of the Green’s function formalism,which is the theoretical basis of most such methods, we discuss the analytical continuation from imaginary to real frequencies. Especially the maximum entropy method is explained in detail and an implementation there of is presented.The remainder of this thesis deals with methods to compute Green’s functions on thei maginary frequency axis. First, the Anderson impurity model (AIM) is considered. It can be solved numerically – a task for which several methods exist. We focus on continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo with worm sampling, through which various kinds of correlation functions can be calculated. On this basis we derive and implement symmetric improved estimators that allow for the computation of the self-energy and vertex functions where the level of stochastic noise is largely reduced with respect to conventional estimators.As a next step the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is introduced as a method to capture local correlations in the Hubbard model (HM) by self-consistently mapping it onto the AIM. We study the convergence behavior of this iterative procedure and the improvement of convergence due to mixing. Then, we compare electron scattering rates from DMFT in the weak-coupling regime of the square-lattice HM to results from Boltzmann scattering theory.While local correlations account for many interesting phenomena, such as the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition, they are not sufficient to correctly describe, e.g., the physics of phase transitions in two- or three-dimensional systems. It is thus the final step in this thesis to also include nonlocal correlations by means of the dynamical vertex approximation (DΓA). For this we develop a new self-consistency scheme, which is then applied to several systems: We study the square-lattice HM, where we compare to benchmark methods in the weak-coupling regime, but also present results for intermediate and strong coupling. Furthermore, a two-band model with doping and a three-band Wannier model for strontium vanadate are studied. As an application of our new self-consistent DΓA, we study the effects of geometrical frustration in the kagome lattice, where we also compare our results to determinant quantum Monte Carlo.