The main features of a generic boson-fermion scenario for electron pairing in a many-body correlated fermionic system are (i) a crossover from a poor metal to an insulator and finally a superconductor as the temperature decreases; (ii) the buildup of a finite amplitude of local electron pairing below a certain temperature ${T}^{*},$ followed by the onset of long-range phase correlations among electron pairs below a second characteristic temperature ${T}_{\ensuremath{\varphi}};$ and (iii) the opening of a pseudogap in the density of states of the electrons below ${T}^{*},$ rendering these electrons poorer and poorer quasi-particles as the temperature decreases, with the electron transport becoming ensured by electron pairs rather than by individual electrons. A number of these features have been obtained so far on the basis of different many-body techniques, all of which have their built-in shortcomings in the intermediate coupling regime, which is of interest here. In order to substantiate these features, we investigate them on the basis of an exact diagonalization study on rings up to eight sites. Particular emphasis has been put on the possibility of having persistent currents in mesoscopic rings tracking the change-over from single- to two-particle transport as the temperature decreases and the superconducting state is approached.
The main features of a generic boson-fermion scenario for electron pairing in a many-body correlated fermionic system are (i) a crossover from a poor metal to an insulator and finally a superconductor as the temperature decreases; (ii) the buildup of a finite amplitude of local electron pairing below a certain temperature T∗, followed by the onset of long-range phase correlations among electron pairs below a second characteristic temperature T\ensuremathφ; and (iii) the opening of a pseudogap in the density of states of the electrons below T∗, rendering these electrons poorer and poorer quasi-particles as the temperature decreases, with the electron transport becoming ensured by electron pairs rather than by individual electrons. A number of these features have been obtained so far on the basis of different many-body techniques, all of which have their built-in shortcomings in the intermediate coupling regime, which is of interest here. In order to substantiate these features, we investigate them on the basis of an exact diagonalization study on rings up to eight sites. Particular emphasis has been put on the possibility of having persistent currents in mesoscopic rings tracking the change-over from single- to two-particle transport as the temperature decreases and the superconducting state is approached.
The spectral properties of a mixture of bosons hybridized with fermion pairs are studied in the superconducting state. Such a model exhibits two limiting behaviors. One is reminiscent of a BCS system, provided that the total concentration n of particles is below a certain critical concentration nc, in which case bosons exist only in thermally excited states. The other limit for n\ensuremath{\geqslant}nc describes a situation largely controlled by the condensation of the bosons. The variation of the single-boson as well as collective excitations as a function of n and for the entire temperature regime from T=0 K to Tc will be discussed, both with and without long-range Coulomb interaction between the charge carriers. The method for calculation applied here is based on the dielectric formalism and the use of Ward identities, currently used in the theory of the interacting Bose gas, which allows us to derive the density and current correlation functions consistent with local charge-current conservation laws. In the absence of a Coulomb interaction the behavior of the system is characterized by the existence of a sound-wave-like branch in the Bose single-particle and collective excitation spectrum. In the BCS regime the sound velocity is proportional to the Fermi velocity while in the Bose regime it is proportional to the strength of the boson-fermion hybridization and decreases with the superfluid density as we approach Tc. In the presence of a long-range Coulomb interaction and in the Bose regime one observes, besides the usual optical plasmon mode at high frequency and corresponding to in-phase density oscillation of the two subsytems, an out-of-phase collective mode in the two particle continuum just above the gap. Moreover, upon approaching Tc a relatively well-defined quasiparticle feature starts to emerge within the gap and is seen in both the Bose single-particle excitation and the density oscillation spectrum. In the BCS regime, due to the very small number of occupied bosonic states, the low-energy quasiparticle features are absent. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
The boson-fermion model, describing a mixture of itinerant electrons hybridizing with tightly bound electron pairs represented as hardcore bosons, is here generalized with the inclusion of a term describing on-site Coulomb repulsion between fermions with opposite spins. Within the general framework of the dynamical mean-field theory, it is shown that around the symmetric limit of the model this interaction strongly competes with the local boson-fermion exchange mechanism, smoothly driving the system from a pseudogap phase with poor conducting properties to a metallic regime characterized by a substantial reduction of the fermionic density. On the other hand, if one starts from correlated fermions described in terms of the one-band Hubbard model, the introduction in the half-filled insulating phase of a coupling with hardcore bosons leads to the disappearance of the correlation gap, with a consequent smooth crossover to a metallic state.
An exact study of charge-spin separation, pairing fluctuations, and pseudogaps is carried out by combining the analytical eigenvalues of the four-site Hubbard clusters with the grand canonical and canonical ensemble approaches in a multidimensional parameter space of temperature (T), magnetic field (h), on-site interaction (U), and chemical potential $(\ensuremath{\mu})$. Our results, near the average number of electrons $⟨N⟩\ensuremath{\approx}3$, strongly suggest the existence of a critical parameter Uc(T) for the localization of electrons and a particle-hole binding (positive) gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{e\text{\ensuremath{-}}h}(T)>0$ at U>Uc(T), with a zero temperature critical value, Uc(0)=4.584. For U<Uc(T), the particle-particle pair binding is found with a (positive) pairing gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{P}(T)>0$. The ground state degeneracy is lifted at U>Uc(T) and the cluster becomes a Mott-Hubbard like insulator due to the presence of energy gaps at all (allowed) integer numbers $(1\ensuremath{\le}N\ensuremath{\le}8)$ of electrons. In contrast, for $U\ensuremath{\le}{U}_{c}(T)$, we find an electron pair binding instability at finite temperature near $⟨N⟩\ensuremath{\approx}3$, which manifests a possible pairing mechanism, a precursor to superconductivity in small clusters. Rigorous criteria for the existence of many-body Mott-Hubbard like particle-hole and particle-particle pairings, spin pairing, (spin) pseudogap, and (spin) antiferromagnetic critical crossover temperatures, at which the corresponding pseudogaps disappear, are also formulated. In particular, the resulting phase diagram consisting of charge and spin pseudogaps, antiferromagnetic correlations, hole pairing with competing hole-rich (⟨N⟩=2), hole-poor (⟨N⟩=4), and magnetic (⟨N⟩=3) regions in the ensemble of clusters near 1/8 filling closely resembles the phase diagrams and inhomogeneous phase separation recently found in the family of doped high-Tc cuprates.
We study the interplay between the single-particle and fermion-pair features in the boson fermion model, both above and below the transition temperature Tc, using the flow equation method. Upon lowering the temperature the single-particle fermionic spectral function (a) gradually develops a depletion of the low-energy states (pseudogap) for T∗>T>Tc and a true superconducting gap for T<Tc and (b) exhibits a considerable transfer of spectral weight between the incoherent background and the narrow coherent peak(s) signifying long-lived quasiparticle features. The Cooperon spectral function consists of a $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function peak, centered at the renormalized boson energy $\ensuremath{\omega}={\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{E}}_{\mathbf{q}}$ and a surrounding incoherent background which is spread over a wide energy range. When the temperature approaches Tc from above, this peak for q=0 moves to $\ensuremath{\omega}=0$, so that the static pair susceptibility diverges (Thouless criterion for the broken symmetry phase transition). Upon decreasing the temperature below Tc the Cooperon peak becomes the collective (Goldstone) mode ${E}_{\mathbf{q}}\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\mid}\mathbf{q}\ensuremath{\mid}$ in the small-momentum region and simultaneously splits off from the incoherent background states which are expelled to the high-energy sector $\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\geqslant}2{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{sc}(T)$. We discuss the smooth evolution of these features upon approaching Tc from above and consider its feedback on the single-particle spectrum where a gradual formation of damped Bogoliubov modes (above Tc) is observed.
The pseudogap state of cuprate high-temperature superconductors has been often viewed as either a yet unknown competing order or a precursor state to superconductivity. While awaiting the resolution of the pseudogap problem in cuprates, we demonstrate that local pairing fluctuations, vortex liquid dynamics, and other precursor phenomena can emerge quite generally whenever fermionic excitations remain gapped across the superconducting transition, regardless of the gap origin. Our choice of a tractable model is a lattice band insulator with short-range attractive interactions between fermions in the s-wave channel. An effective crossover between Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) regimes can be identified in any band insulator above two dimensions, while in two dimensions only the BEC regime exists. The superconducting transition is ``unconventional'' (non-pair-breaking) in the BEC regime, identified by either the bosonic mean field or XY universality class. The insulator adjacent to the superconductor in the BEC regime is a bosonic Mott insulator of Cooper pairs, which may be susceptible to charge density wave ordering. We construct a function of the many-body excitation spectrum whose nonanalytic changes define a sharp distinction between band and Mott insulators. The corresponding ``second-order transition'' can be observed out of equilibrium by driving a Cooper pair laser in the Mott insulator. We explicitly show that the gap for charged bosonic excitations lies below the threshold for Cooper pair breakup in any BEC regime, despite quantum fluctuations. Our discussion ends with a view of possible consequences for cuprates, where antinodal pair dynamics has certain features in common with our simple s-wave picture.
This paper addresses the transition from the normal to the superfluid state in strongly correlated two dimensional fermionic superconductors and Fermi gases. We arrive at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) temperature TBKT as a function of \emph{attractive} pairing strength by associating it with the onset of quasi-condensation in the normal phase. Our approach builds on a criterion for determining the BKT transition temperature for atomic gases which is based on a well established Quantum Monte Carlo analysis of the phase space density. This latter quantity, when derived from BCS-BEC crossover theory for fermions, leads to non-monotonic behavior for TBKT as a function of the attractive interaction or inverse scattering length. In Fermi gases, this implies a robust superconducting dome followed by a long tail from the flat BEC asymptote, rather similar to what is observed experimentally. For lattice systems we find that TBKT has an absolute maximum of the order of 0.1EF. We discuss how our results compare with those derived from the Nelson Kosterlitz criterion based on the mean field superfluid density and the approach to the transition from below. While there is agreement in the strict mean-field BCS regime at weak coupling, we find that at moderate pairing strength bosonic excitations cause a substantial increase in TBKT followed by an often dramatic decrease before the system enters the BEC regime.