The BCS-BEC crossover within the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model is studied by using the Cellular Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, both in the normal and superconducting ground states. Short-range spatial correlations incorporated in this theory remove the normal-state quasiparticle peak and the first-order transition found in the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, rendering the normal state crossover smooth. For
U smaller than the bandwidth, pairing is driven by the potential energy, while in the opposite case it is driven by the kinetic energy, resembling a recent optical conductivity experiment in cuprates. Phase coherence leads to the appearance of a collective Bogoliubov mode in the density-density correlation function and to the sharpening of the spectral function.
We discuss the phase diagram of the extended Hubbard model with both attractive and repulsive local and nonlocal interactions. The extended dynamical mean-field theory (EDMFT) and the dual boson method (DB) are compared. The latter contains additional nonlocal correlation effects that are not incorporated in EDMFT. We find that EDMFT and DB give almost identical results in the attractive V regime, where phase separation occurs. This is quite a difference with the previously studied repulsive V regime, where EDMFT and DB give very different phase boundaries for the checkerboard order phase, especially at small U .