arXiv:cond-mat/0601113 · Physical Review B
Superconductivity in inhomogeneous Hubbard models
Wei-Feng Tsai, Steven Allan Kivelson
Abstract
We present a controlled perturbative approach to the low-temperature phase diagram of highly inhomogeneous Hubbard models in the limit of small coupling, ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, between clusters. We apply this to the dimerized and checkerboard models. The dimerized model is found to behave like a doped semiconductor, with a Fermi-liquid groundstate with parameters (e.g., the effective mass) which are smooth functions of the Hubbard interaction, $U$. By contrast, the checkerboard model has a Fermi liquid phase at large $U>{U}_{c}=4.58$, a $d$-wave superconducting state with a full gap for ${U}_{c}>U>0$, and a narrow strip of an intermediate $d$-wave superconducting phase with gapless ``nodal'' quasiparticles for $\ensuremath{\mid}U\ensuremath{-}{U}_{c}\ensuremath{\mid}<\mathcal{O}({t}^{\ensuremath{'}})$.