We further develop an extended dynamical mean-field approach introduced earlier. It goes beyond the standard $D=\ensuremath{\infty}$ dynamical mean field theory by incorporating quantum fluctuations associated with intersite (Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida like) interactions. This is achieved by scaling the intersite interactions to the same power in $1/D$ as that for the kinetic terms. In this approach, a correlated lattice problem is reduced to a single-impurity Anderson model with additional self-consistent bosonic baths. Here, we formulate the approach in terms of standard perturbation expansions. We show that the two-particle vertex functions are momentum-dependent, while the single-particle self-energy remains local. In spite of this, the approach is conserving. Finally, we also determine the form of a momentum-dependent dynamical susceptibility; the resulting expression relates it to the corresponding Weiss field, local correlation function and (momentum-dependent) intersite coupling.
We further develop an extended dynamical mean-field approach introduced earlier. It goes beyond the standard D=\ensuremath∞ dynamical mean field theory by incorporating quantum fluctuations associated with intersite (Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida like) interactions. This is achieved by scaling the intersite interactions to the same power in 1/D as that for the kinetic terms. In this approach, a correlated lattice problem is reduced to a single-impurity Anderson model with additional self-consistent bosonic baths. Here, we formulate the approach in terms of standard perturbation expansions. We show that the two-particle vertex functions are momentum-dependent, while the single-particle self-energy remains local. In spite of this, the approach is conserving. Finally, we also determine the form of a momentum-dependent dynamical susceptibility; the resulting expression relates it to the corresponding Weiss field, local correlation function and (momentum-dependent) intersite coupling.
We describe a recent implementation of the combined GW and dynamical mean field method (GW+DMFT) for the two-dimensional Hubbard model with onsite and nearest-neighbor repulsion. We clarify the relation of the GW+DMFT scheme to alternative approaches in the literature, and discuss the corresponding approximations to the free-energy functional of the model. Furthermore, we describe a numerically exact technique for the solution of the GW+DMFT equations, namely, the hybridization expansion continuous-time algorithm for impurity models with retarded interactions. We compute the low-temperature phase diagram of the half-filled extended Hubbard model, addressing the metal-insulator transition at small intersite interactions and the transition to a charge-ordered state for stronger intersite repulsions. GW+DMFT introduces a nontrivial momentum dependence into the many-body self-energy and polarization. We find that the charge fluctuations included in the present approach have a larger impact on the latter than on the former. Finally, within the GW+DMFT framework, as in extended DMFT, the intersite repulsion translates into a frequency dependence of the local effective interaction. We analyze this dependence and show how it affects the local spectral function.
An overarching question in strongly correlated electron systems is how the landscape of quantum phases emerges from electron correlations. The method of extended dynamical mean field theory (EDMFT) has been developed for clean lattice models of the correlated electrons. For such models, not only onsite Hubbard-like interactions are important, but so are intersite interactions. Importantly, the EDMFT method treats the interplay between the onsite and intersite interactions dynamically. It was initially formulated for models of the two-band Anderson-lattice type with intersite interactions, as well as for the one-band Hubbard type with intersite Heisenberg-like terms that are often called Hubbard-Heisenberg models. In the case of Kondo lattice models, the EDMFT method incorporates a dynamical competition between the local Kondo and intersite Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions. In these models, the EDMFT-based analyses led to the notion of Kondo destruction, which has played a central role in the understanding of quantum critical heavy fermion metals. In this article, we summarize the EDMFT method, and survey its applications, particularly for Kondo/Anderson lattice models. We also discuss the prospect for further developing the EDMFT method, as well as for applying it to address the correlation physics in a variety of new settings. Among the latter are the orbital-selective Mott physics that arises both in iron-based superconductors and in frustrated bulk systems with topological flat bands.
An essential role for the description of correlated quantum many-particle systems is played by impurity problems. These consist of a small number of localized orbitals, where the electrons are subject to a Coulomb-interaction, coupled to noninteracting bath degrees of freedom. Impurity models are used for the description of magnetic impurities in metals, of quantum points in nanostructures, and in the context of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). For their solution a large number of numerical methods exists. We mention here quantum Monte Carlo methods, the numerical renormalization group, or the exact diagonalization method. In this thesis we introduce a new approach to impurity problems, which is based on the functional renormalization group (fRG). In contrast to the methods mentioned above this approach is approximative, but it can be applied with comparatively lower numerical effort. The aim of this thesis is to examine the advantages and limits of this method. An important role in this connection is played by the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM), which is already understood very well with other methods and is seen as a prototype for models with strong local correlations. The spin fluctuations of this model are governed by the so-called Kondo energy scale and a central question of this thesis is whether this scale can be reproduced with our approach. We begin with a short introduction to the Green's function formalism for correlated quantum many particle systems. Then the fRG flow equations for the one-particle irreducible vertex functions are deduced, and several approximation schemes are discussed. In chapter 4 we introduce the fRG scheme used in this thesis. At first the SIAM is mapped to a semi-infinite chain, in which the interacting orbital is given by the first site of this chain. The system is then subdivided into two parts. The first part, which is called 'core', consists of the interacting orbital and the first L bath sites. The remaining bath sites form the second part. At the beginning both parts are decoupled from each other such that the core can be solved exactly. Starting with this exact solution the coupling between the core and the remaining bath sites is switched on slowly in a renormalization group flow. This way it is possible to calculate the one-particle and two-particle correlation functions on the correlated site. We call this flow scheme 'hybridization flow'. The flow equations are formulated in an effective theory on the first bath site outside the core, which turns out to be advantageous compared to other implementations of the hybridization flow. In chapter 5 this hybridization flow method is applied to the SIAM with semi-elliptic bath density of states. We discuss the differences which arise for different core-sizes (L = 0,1,2,3) and for different truncations of the fRG flow equations. In the cases L=0 and L=2 the local Fermi liquid properties of the SIAM and the associated Kondo scale can not be reproduced in both approximation schemes. For the core sizes L=1 and L=3 the ground state of the core is already a spin singlet state in the beginning of the flow and the Fermi liquid properties are reproduced. The Kondo energy scale, which determines the width of the central quasi-particle peak and the size of the local spin-susceptibility, is however not accurately resolved. This is partly due to the finite temperature used in our implementation such that for larger interaction strength the temperature is above the Kondo energy scale. The application of the hybridization flow method to quantum impurity problems in the context of the DMFT is discussed in chapter 6. In this approach lattice models with a local interaction, like the Hubbard model, are mapped to an effective impurity problem for a single lattice site embedded in a dynamical mean field representing the influence of the other electrons. This scheme is exact in infinitely many dimensions and a nonperturbative approximation method for finite-dimensional systems. In particular the Mott metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model is successfully described by this method. One class of quantities, which is easily accessible from the hybridization flow scheme, is given by the local two-particle correlation functions. These play an essential role in non-local extensions of the DMFT. Therefore we mainly focus on these quantities. At first we apply our flow scheme to the Hubbard model on the Bethe lattice in infinite dimensions and calculate the local one-particle irreducible vertex functions in the insulating and the metallic phase in good agreement with previous calculations, which use the exact diagonalization method as impurity solver. After this we extend our flow scheme to a cluster DMFT method, which includes short-range antiferromagnetic correlations and calculate again the local and non-local vertex functions for the two-dimensional Hubbard model. We compare these to the results of the single-site DMFT.
Think globally, act locally. Summary Dynamical mean-field theory is designed to treat systems with local effective interactions that are strong compared with the independent-particle terms that lead to delocalized band-like states. Interactions are taken into account by a many-body calculation for an auxiliary system, a site embedded in a dynamical mean field, that is chosen to best represent the coupling to the rest of the crystal. The methods are constructed to be exact in three limits: interacting electrons on isolated sites, a lattice with no interactions, and the limit of infinite dimensions d → ∞ where mean-field theory is exact. This chapter is devoted to the general formulation, the single-site approximation where the calculation of the self-energy is mapped onto a self-consistent quantum impurity problem, and instructive examples for the Hubbard model on a d → ∞ Bethe lattice. Further developments and applications are the topics of Chs. 17–21. One of the most rewarding features of condensed matter theory is the ability to address difficult problems from different points of view. The preceding Chs. 9–15 present an approach based on perturbation expansions in the Coulomb interaction. In particular, the GW approximation for the self-energy has proven to be extremely successful in describing electronic spectra of many materials, as described in Ch. 13. The methods can be applied to the ordered states of materials with d and f states, for example, ferromagnetic Ni and anti-ferromagnetic NiO, as described in Secs. 13.4 and 20.7. However, the GW and related approximations have difficulties in treating cases with degenerate or nearly degenerate states and low-energy excitations. Present-day methods do not describe phenomena like the fluctuations of local moments in a ferromagnetic material above the Curie temperature or the insulating character of NiO in the paramagnetic phase; more generally, they have difficulty describing strong correlation. The topic of this chapter and Chs. 17–21 is dynamical mean-field theory, which is also a Green's function method in which the key quantity is the self-energy. However, it is designed to treat strong interactions for electrons in localized atomic-like states, such as the d and f states in transition metals, lanthanide and actinide elements and compounds.
We formulate a bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (B-DMFT) which provides a comprehensive, thermodynamically consistent framework for the theoretical investigation of correlated lattice bosons. The B-DMFT is applicable for arbitrary values of the coupling parameters and temperature and becomes exact in the limit of high spatial dimensions d or coordination number Z of the lattice. In contrast to its fermionic counterpart, the construction of the B-DMFT requires different scalings of the hopping amplitudes with Z depending on whether the bosons are in their normal state or in the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). A detailed discussion of how this conceptual problem can be overcome by performing the scaling in the action rather than in the Hamiltonian itself is presented. The B-DMFT treats normal and condensed bosons on equal footing and thus includes the effects caused by their dynamic coupling. It reproduces all previously investigated limits in parameter space, such as the Beliaev-Popov and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximations, and generalizes the existing mean-field theories of interacting bosons. The self-consistency equations of the B-DMFT are those of a bosonic single-impurity coupled to two reservoirs corresponding to bosons in the condensate and in the normal state, respectively. We employ the B-DMFT to solve a model of itinerant and localized, interacting bosons analytically. The local correlations are found to enhance the condensate density and the BEC transition temperature TBEC. This effect may be used experimentally to increase TBEC of bosonic atoms in optical lattices.
Dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) provides an optimal local approximation for correlated lattice systems by mapping the lattice onto a self-consistent effective impurity model. To account for the missing long-range correlations, we propose a novel extended approach, which we term fluctuating dynamical mean-field theory (fDMFT). It incorporates collective fluctuations of auxiliary impurity models across different sites via functional integration. Technically, this method involves obtaining a family of DMFT solutions on a grid for a self-consistent auxiliary classical field applied to the lattice. While the result can, in principle, be improved diagrammatically, we find that the minimal version of the theory already yields accurate results, with lowest-order diagrammatic corrections offering only minor improvements. This consistent framework, based on our fluctuating local field concept, demonstrates superior performance for the nearly half-filled Hubbard model compared to other known diagrammatic extensions of DMFT.