We study the one-dimensional Holstein model with spin-
21 electrons at half filling. Ground-state properties are calculated for long chains with great accuracy using the density-matrix renormalization-group method and extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit. We show that for small electron-phonon coupling or large phonon frequency, the insulating Peierls ground state predicted by mean-field theory is destroyed by quantum lattice fluctuations and that the system remains in a metallic phase with a nondegenerate ground state and power-law electronic and phononic correlations. When the electron-phonon coupling becomes large or the phonon frequency small, the system undergoes a transition to an insulating Peierls phase with a twofold degenerate ground state, long-range charge-density-wave order, a dimerized lattice structure, and a gap in the electronic excitation spectrum.
As a generic model describing quasi-one-dimensional Mott and Peierls insulators, we investigate the Holstein-Hubbard model for half-filled bands using numerical techniques. Combining Lanczos diagonalization with Chebyshev moment expansion we calculate exactly the photoemission and inverse photoemission spectra, and use these to establish the phase diagram of the model. While polaronic features emerge only at strong electron-phonon couplings, pronounced phonon signatures, such as multiquanta band states, can be found in the Mott insulating regime as well. In order to corroborate the Mott to Peierls transition scenario, we determine the spin- and charge-excitation gaps by a finite-size scaling analysis based on density-matrix renormalization-group calculations.
By utilizing the twisted boundary conditions in the exact diagonalization method, we investigate the single-particle spectral function of the extended Peierls-Hubbard model at both half-filling and quarter-filling. In one-dimensional (1D) interacting systems, the spin-charge separation can typically be identified in the single-particle spectral function by observing the distinct spinon and holon bands. At half-filling, starting from the pure 1D Hubbard model with the on-site interaction
U=10, we observe that the band structure indicative of the spin-charge separation gradually transitions to four individual bands as the Peierls instability $\ensuremath{\delta}$ increases. At
U=10 and $\ensuremath{\delta}=0.2$ where the spin-charge separation is still observable, increasing the nearest-neighbor interaction
V can drive the system to a charge-density-wave state when $V\ensuremath{\gtrsim}U/2$. At quarter-filling, on the other hand, the ground state of Peierls-Hubbard model manifests an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator in units of dimers. Increasing
U results in only a very small gap in the single-particle spectrum because even for $U=+\ensuremath{\infty}$, with the model transforming into a noninteracting half-filled dimerized tight-binding model, its gap determined by the Peierls instability $\ensuremath{\delta}$ remains small. Conversely, increasing
V can effectively open the single-particle gap and make the spinon and holon bands more prominent.
We re-examine the Peierls insulator to Mott insulator transition scenario in the one-dimensional Holstein-Hubbard model where, at half-filling, electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions compete for establishing charge- and spin-density-wave states, respectively. By means of large-scale density-matrix renormalization group calculations we determine the spin, single-particle and two-particle excitation gaps and prove —in the course of a careful finite-size scaling analysis— recent claims for an intervening metallic phase in the weak-coupling regime. We show that for large phonon frequencies the metallic region is even more extended than previously expected, and subdivided into ordinary Luttinger-liquid and bipolaronic-liquid phases.
We report quantum Monte Carlo (stochastic series expansion) results for the transition from a Mott insulator to a dimerized Peierls insulating state in a half-filled, one-dimensional extended Hubbard model coupled to optical bond phonons. Using electron-electron (e-e) interaction parameters corresponding approximately to polyacetylene, we show that the Mott-Peierls transition occurs at a finite value of the electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling. We discuss several different criteria for detecting the transition and show that they give consistent results. We calculate the critical e-ph coupling as a function of the bare phonon frequency and also investigate the sensitivity of the critical coupling to the strength of the e-e interaction. In the limit of strong e-e couplings, we map the model to a spin-Peierls chain and compare the phase boundary with previous results for the spin-Peierls transition. We point out effects of a nonlinear spin-phonon coupling neglected in the mapping to the spin-Peierls model.
By utilizing the twisted boundary conditions in the exact diagonalization method, we investigate the single-particle spectral function of the extended Peierls-Hubbard model at both half-filling and quarter filling. In one-dimensional (1D) interacting systems, the spin-charge separation can typically be identified in the single-particle spectral function by observing the distinct spinon and holon bands. At half filling, starting from the pure 1D Hubbard model with the on-site interaction
U=10, we observe that the band structure indicative of the spin-charge separation gradually transitions to four individual bands as the Peierls instability
δ increases. At
U=10 and
δ=0.2 where the spin-charge separation is still observable, increasing the nearest-neighbor interaction
V can drive the system to a charge-density-wave (CDW) state when
V≳U/2, without the obeservation of spinon and holon bands. At quarter-filling, on the other hand, the ground state of Peierls-Hubbard model manifests an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator in units of dimers. Increasing
U results in only a very small gap in the single-particle spectrum because even for
U=+∞, with the model transforming into a noninteracting half-filled dimerized tight-binding model, its gap determined by the Peierls instability
δ remains small. Conversely, increasing
V can effectively open the single-particle gap and make the spinon and holon bands more prominent.