While it is over 30 years since the high-T c superconductor was discovered, the cuprates have attracted great interests in many scientific fields.Understanding high-T c is one of the most challenging issues in the condensed matter theory.The mechanism of the superconductivity in these materials is still not fully understood, and continues to be discussed intensely.Specifically, the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model, which is a representative model for the cuprates, still has many questions, and many analytical and numerical methods have been proposed for studying the superconductivity, magnetism and other instabilities.In the present thesis, we propose to combine the non-perturbative dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) with the perturbative diagrammatic expansion techniques to treat the local correlation effects ("Mott physics") and momentum dependent pairing interaction (that produces the d-wave pairing superconductivity) to explore the superconductivity and various instabilities in the Hubbard model.First, we formulate the combination of the fluctuation exchange (FLEX) approximation and DMFT in a self-consistent manner in terms of the Luttinger-Ward functional for superconducting phases.The resultant phase diagram exhibits a clear T c dome structure against the band filling as observed experimentally, while in the ordinary FLEX, T c almost monotonically increases toward the half-filling.We trace the origin of the T c -dome back to a combined effect of the filling dependence of the local vertex correction and the filling dependence of the pairing interaction.As another effect inherent in the strongly correlated systems, we study a phase transition for the Pomeranchuk instability, where the four-fold rotational symmetry in the electronic structure on the tetragonal lattice is spontaneously broken into two-fold due to an interaction effect.We find that the Pomeranchuk instability is remarkably more sensitive to the Fermi surface warping than the superconducting T c dome.An interesting question is the effect of the distorted Fermi surface due to the Pomeranchuk instability on the superconductivity, and we have revealed that the gap function is slightly changed from ordinary d-wave pairing to (d+s)-wave.Furthermore, we find that the Fermi surface distortion can enhance the superconducting T c in frustrated systems.i Finally, we consider the extension of the DMFT vertex to study the vertex correction effect on nonlocal self-energy and the pairing interaction.For this purpose, we employ the DΓA (dynamical vertex approximation) formalism, which is extended here to accommodate superconducting phases.For the Hubbard model we obtain the T c -dome due to a combined effect as in the FLEX+DMFT case, but the transition temperature is reduced by the vertex correction.We also find that the pairing interaction is strongly screened by the vertex correction effect.ii
While it is over 30 years since the high-T c superconductor was discovered, the cuprates have attracted great interests in many scientific fields.Understanding high-T c is one of the most challenging issues in the condensed matter theory.The mechanism of the superconductivity in these materials is still not fully understood, and continues to be discussed intensely.Specifically, the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model, which is a representative model for the cuprates, still has many questions, and many analytical and numerical methods have been proposed for studying the superconductivity, magnetism and other instabilities.In the present thesis, we propose to combine the non-perturbative dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) with the perturbative diagrammatic expansion techniques to treat the local correlation effects ("Mott physics") and momentum dependent pairing interaction (that produces the d-wave pairing superconductivity) to explore the superconductivity and various instabilities in the Hubbard model.First, we formulate the combination of the fluctuation exchange (FLEX) approximation and DMFT in a self-consistent manner in terms of the Luttinger-Ward functional for superconducting phases.The resultant phase diagram exhibits a clear T c dome structure against the band filling as observed experimentally, while in the ordinary FLEX, T c almost monotonically increases toward the half-filling.We trace the origin of the T c -dome back to a combined effect of the filling dependence of the local vertex correction and the filling dependence of the pairing interaction.As another effect inherent in the strongly correlated systems, we study a phase transition for the Pomeranchuk instability, where the four-fold rotational symmetry in the electronic structure on the tetragonal lattice is spontaneously broken into two-fold due to an interaction effect.We find that the Pomeranchuk instability is remarkably more sensitive to the Fermi surface warping than the superconducting T c dome.An interesting question is the effect of the distorted Fermi surface due to the Pomeranchuk instability on the superconductivity, and we have revealed that the gap function is slightly changed from ordinary d-wave pairing to (d+s)-wave.Furthermore, we find that the Fermi surface distortion can enhance the superconducting T c in frustrated systems.i Finally, we consider the extension of the DMFT vertex to study the vertex correction effect on nonlocal self-energy and the pairing interaction.For this purpose, we employ the DΓA (dynamical vertex approximation) formalism, which is extended here to accommodate superconducting phases.For the Hubbard model we obtain the T c -dome due to a combined effect as in the FLEX+DMFT case, but the transition temperature is reduced by the vertex correction.We also find that the pairing interaction is strongly screened by the vertex correction effect.ii
Interplay of Pomeranchuk instability (spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Fermi surface) and d-wave superconductivity is studied for the repulsive Hubbard model on the square lattice with the dynamical mean-field theory combined with the fluctuation exchange approximation (FLEX+DMFT). We show that the fourfold symmetric Fermi surface becomes unstable against a spontaneous distortion into twofold near the van Hove filling, where the symmetry of superconductivity coexisting with the Pomeranchuk-distorted Fermi surface is modified from the d-wave pairing to the (d+s) wave. By systematically shifting the position of van Hove filling with varied second- and third-neighbor hoppings, we find that the transition temperature TcPI for the Pomeranchuk instability is more sensitively affected by the position of van Hove filling than the superconducting TcSC. This implies that the filling region for strong Pomeranchuk instability and that for the TcSC dome can be separated, and that Pomeranchuk instability can appear even if the peak of TcPI is lower than the peak of TcSC. An interesting finding is that the Fermi surface distortion can enhance the superconducting TcSC in the overdoped regime, which is explained with a perturbational picture for small distortions.
The dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) combined with the fluctuation exchange (FLEX) method, namely, FLEX+DMFT, is an approach for correlated electron systems to incorporate both local and nonlocal long-range correlations in a self-consistent manner. We formulate FLEX+DMFT in a systematic way starting from a Luttinger-Ward functional, and apply it to study the d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model. The critical temperature (Tc) curve obtained in the FLEX+DMFT exhibits a dome structure as a function of the filling, which has not been clearly observed in the FLEX approach alone. We trace back the origin of the dome to the local vertex correction from DMFT that renders a filling dependence in the FLEX self-energy. We compare the results with those of GW+DMFT, where the Tc-dome structure is qualitatively reproduced due to the same vertex correction effect, but a crucial difference from FLEX+DMFT is that Tc is always estimated below the N\'eel temperature in GW+DMFT. The single-particle spectral function obtained with FLEX+DMFT exhibits a double-peak structure as a precursor of the Hubbard bands at temperatures above Tc.
Divergencies appearing in perturbation expansions of interacting many-body systems can often be removed by expanding around a suitably chosen renormalized (instead of the noninteracting) Hamiltonian. We describe such a renormalized perturbation expansion for interacting Fermi systems, which treats Fermi surface shifts and superconductivity with an arbitrary gap function via additive counterterms. The expansion is formulated explicitly for the Hubbard model to second order in the interaction. Numerical solutions of the self-consistency condition determining the Fermi surface and the gap function are calculated for the two-dimensional case. For the repulsive Hubbard model close to half-filling we find a superconducting state with d-wave symmetry, as expected. For Fermi levels close to the van Hove singularity a Pomeranchuk instability leads to Fermi surfaces with a broken square lattice symmetry, whose topology can be closed or open. For the attractive Hubbard model the second-order calculation yields an s-wave superconductivity with a weakly momentum dependent gap, whose size is reduced compared to the mean-field result.
The treatment of strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi systems constitutes one of the most challenging problems in the field of condensed matter physics. Many theoretical works focused on the strongly coupled Hubbard model, since it is expected to capture the most important physics of cuprate superconductors. Due to our methodological improvements and understanding of the frequency dependence of the two-particle vertex function, the functional renormalization group combined with the dynamical mean field theory can now be used to study competing correlations in the strongly interacting regime. While limited to moderate interaction strengths, the functional renormalization group describes efficiently systems with a hierarchy of different energy scales and competing correlations. For instance, it provides definite evidence for d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at moderate coupling. In a first project, we study the frequency dependence of the one-particle irreducible vertex function generated by the functional renormalization group flow. The frequency dependence, which becomes singular for strong interactions, appears to be important already for moderate couplings, and it cannot be represented by separate channels each depending on a single linear combination of frequencies. For strongly interacting systems, the dynamical mean field theory captures strong local correlation effects nonperturbatively. With this approximation, we study the impact of local correlations on the magnetic susceptibility. The local dynamics strongly affects the spin response function and its momentum dependence. In contrast to the widely used random-phase approximation with self-energy corrections that predicts Néel antiferromagnetic order, the local vertex corrections favor an incommensurate order similar to the ordering instability predicted by the Fermi surface geometry, as for weakly interacting systems. The dynamical mean field theory is also used as starting point for the functional renormalization group flow. We demonstrate that, due to our improvements for the parametrization of the vertex function, this approach is actually able to access the strong coupling physics. Moreover, we derive a flow scheme that conserves the local contributions and reduces the truncation error of the flow equations. In the strongly interacting regime, we capture strong d-wave pairing correlations driven by magnetic fluctuations with a mechanism similar to the one observed in the weakly interacting system.
The principal purpose of this topical review is to single out some of the universal features of high-temperature (high-Tc) and related strongly-correlated systems, which can be compared with experiment in a quantitative manner. The description starts with the concept of exchange-interaction-mediated (real-space) pairing, combined with strong correlations among narrow band electrons, for which the reference state is that of the Mott–Hubbard insulator. The physical discussion of concrete properties relies on variational approach, starting from generalized renormalized mean-field theory (RMFT) in the form of statistically-consistent Gutzwiller approximation (SGA), and its subsequent generalization, i.e., a systematic Diagrammatic Expansion of the Variational (Gutzwiller-type) Wave Function (DE-GWF). The solution leads to the two energy scales, one involving unconventional quasiparticles close to the Fermi energy, and the other reflecting the fully correlated state, involving electrons deeper below the Fermi surface. Those two regimes are separated by a kink in the dispersion relation, which is observed in photoemission. As a result, one obtains both the doping dependent properties in the correlated state, and effective renormalized quasiparticles. The reviewed ground-state characteristics for high-Tc systems encompass high-Tc superconductivity, nematicity, charge- (and pair-) density-wave effects, as well as non-BCS kinetic energy gain in the paired state. The calculated dynamic properties are: the universal Fermi velocity, the Fermi wave-vector, the effective mass enhancement, the pseudogap; and the d-wave gap magnitude. We discuss that, within the variational approach, the minimal realistic model is represented by the so-called t-J-U Hamiltonian. Inadequacy of the t-J and Hubbard models, particularly of their RMFT versions, is discussed explicitly. For heavy fermion systems, modeled by the Anderson lattice model and with the DE-GWF approach, we discuss the phase diagram, encompassing superconducting, Kondo insulating, ferro- and anti-ferromagnetic states. The superconducting state is then a two-d-wave gap system. If the orbital degeneracy of f-electrons is included, the coexistent ferromagnetic- (spin–triplet) superconducting phases appear and match those observed for UGe2 in a semiquantitative manner. Finally, in the second part, we generalize our approach to the collective spin and charge fluctuations in high-Tc systems, starting from variational approach, defining the saddle-point state, and combining it with 1/N expansion. The present scheme differs essentially from that starting from the saddle-point Hartree–Fock approximation, and incorporating the fluctuations in the random phase approximation (RPA). The spectrum of collective spin and charge excitations is determined for the Hubbard and t-J-U models, and subsequently compared quantitatively with recent experiments. The Appendices provide formal details to make this review self-contained.
In this thesis we study the strongly-correlated-electron physics of the longstanding H-Tc-superconductivity problem using a non-perturbative method, the Dynamical Mean Field Theory (DMFT), capable to go beyond standard perturbation-theory techniques. DMFT is by construction a local theory which neglects spatial correlation. Experiments have however shown that the latter is a fundamental property of cuprate materials. In a first step, we approach the problem of spatial correlation in the normal state of cuprate materials using a phenomenological Fermi-Liquid-Boltzmann model. We then introduce and develop in detail an extension to DMFT, the Cellular Dynamical Mean Field Theory (CDMFT), capable of considering short-ranged spatial correlation in a system, and we implement it using the exact diagonalization algorithm . After benchmarking CDMFT with the exact one-dimensional solution of the Hubbard Model, we employ it to study the density-driven Mott metal-insulator transition in the two-dimensional Hubbard Model, focusing in particular on the anomalous properties of the doped normal state close to the Mott insulator. We finally study the superconducting state. We show that within CDMFT the one-band Hubbard Model supports a d-wave superconductive state, which strongly departs from the standard BCS theory. We conjecture a link between the instabilities found in the normal state and the onset of superconductivity.