Phase Diagram of the Half-Filled Ionic Hubbard Model

We study the phase diagram of the ionic Hubbard model (IHM) at half-filling using dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), with two impurity solvers, namely, iterated perturbation theory (IPT) and continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (CTQMC). The physics of the IHM is governed by the competition between the staggered potential $\Delta$ and the on-site Hubbard U. In both the methods we find that for a finite $\Delta$ and at zero temperature, anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) order sets in beyond a threshold $U=U_{AF}$ via a first order phase transition below which the system is a paramagnetic band insulator. Both the methods show a clear evidence for a transition to a half-metal phase just after the AFM order is turned on, followed by the formation of an AFM insulator on further increasing U. We show that the results obtained within both the methods have good qualitative and quantitative consistency in the intermediate to strong coupling regime. On increasing the temperature, the AFM order is lost via a first order phase transition at a transition temperature $T_{AF}(U, \Delta)$ within both the methods, for weak to intermediate values of U/t. But in the strongly correlated regime, where the effective low energy Hamiltonian is the Heisenberg model, IPT is unable to capture the thermal (Neel) transition from the AFM phase to the paramagnetic phase, but the CTQMC does. As a result, at any finite temperature T, DMFT+CTQMC shows a second phase transition (not seen within DMFT+IPT) on increasing U beyond $U_{AF}$. At $U_N > U_{AF}$, when the Neel temperature $T_N$ for the effective Heisenberg model becomes lower than T, the AFM order is lost via a second order transition. In the 3-dimensonal parameter space of $(U/t,T/t,\Delta/t)$, there is a line of tricritical points that separates the surfaces of first and second order phase transitions.Comment: Revised versio

Doping a correlated band insulator: A new route to half metallic behaviour

We demonstrate in a simple model the surprising result that turning on an on-site Coulomb interaction U in a doped band insulator leads to the formation of a half-metallic state. In the undoped system, we show that increasing U leads to a first order transition between a paramagnetic, band insulator and an antiferomagnetic Mott insulator at a finite value U_{AF}. Upon doping, the system exhibits half metallic ferrimagnetism over a wide range of doping and interaction strengths on either side of U_{AF}. Our results, based on dynamical mean field theory, suggest a novel route to half-metallic behavior and provide motivation for experiments on new materials for spintronics.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Single-particle excitations across the many-body localization transition in quasi-periodic systems

We study many-body localization transition in one dimensional systems in the presence of a deterministic quasi-periodic potential. We focus on single-particle excitations produced in highly excited many-body eigenstates obtained through single-particle Green's function in real space. A finite-size scaling analysis of the ratio of the typical to average value of the local density of states of single particle excitations is performed assuming that the correlation length $\xi$ diverges at the transition point with a power-law $\xi \sim |h-h_c|^{-\nu}$. Both for the Aubry-Andre (AA) model and the generalized AA model, the finite size scaling of the local density of states obeys the single parameter scaling. A good quality scaling collapse is obtained for $\nu \ge 1$ which satisfies the generalized Luck's criterion for quasiperiodic systems. This analysis supports the continuous nature of the many-body localization transition in systems with AA and generalized AA potentials.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Can correlations drive a band insulator metallic?

We analyze the effects of the on-site Coulomb repulsion U on a band insulator using dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). We find the surprising result that the gap is suppressed to zero at a critical Uc1 and remains zero within a metallic phase. At a larger Uc2 there is a second transition from the metal to a Mott insulator, in which the gap increases with increasing U. These results are qualitatively different from Hartree-Fock theory which gives a monotonically decreasing but non-zero insulating gap for all finite U.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure