Local Order and the gapped phase of the Hubbard model: a plaquette dynamical mean field investigation

The four-site DCA method of including intersite correlations in the dynamical mean field theory is used to investigate the metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model. At half filling a gap-opening transition is found to occur as the interaction strength is increased beyond a critical value. The gapped behavior found in the 4-site DCA approximation is shown to be associated with the onset of strong antiferromagnetic and singlet correlations and the transition is found to be potential energy driven. It is thus more accurately described as a Slater phenomenon (induced by strong short ranged order) than as a Mott phenomenon. Doping the gapped phase leads to a non-Fermi-liquid state with a Fermi surface only in the nodal regions and a pseudogap in the antinodal regions at lower dopings $x \lesssim 0.15$ and to a Fermi liquid phase at higher dopings

Strength of Correlations in electron and hole doped cuprates

High temperature superconductivity was achieved by introducing holes in a parent compound consisting of copper oxide layers separated by spacer layers. It is possible to dope some of the parent compounds with electrons, and their physical properties are bearing some similarities but also significant differences from the hole doped counterparts. Here, we use a recently developed first principles method, to study the electron doped cuprates and elucidate the deep physical reasons why their behavior is so different than the hole doped materials. We find that electron doped compounds are Slater insulators, e.g. a material where the insulating behavior is the result of the presence of magnetic long range order. This is in sharp contrast with the hole doped materials, where the parent compound is a Mott charge transfer insulator, namely a material which is insulating due to the strong electronic correlations but not due to the magnetic order.Comment: submitted to Nature Physic

Electronic correlations in the iron pnictides

In correlated metals derived from Mott insulators, the motion of an electron is impeded by Coulomb repulsion due to other electrons. This phenomenon causes a substantial reduction in the electron's kinetic energy leading to remarkable experimental manifestations in optical spectroscopy. The high-Tc superconducting cuprates are perhaps the most studied examples of such correlated metals. The occurrence of high-Tc superconductivity in the iron pnictides puts a spotlight on the relevance of correlation effects in these materials. Here we present an infrared and optical study on single crystals of the iron pnictide superconductor LaFePO. We find clear evidence of electronic correlations in metallic LaFePO with the kinetic energy of the electrons reduced to half of that predicted by band theory of nearly free electrons. Hallmarks of strong electronic many-body effects reported here are important because the iron pnictides expose a new pathway towards a correlated electron state that does not explicitly involve the Mott transition.Comment: 10 page

Come cambia il marketing: i fatti attraverso le parole di un classico del marketing management

No abstract availabl

Come cambia il marketing: i fatti attraverso le parole di un classico del marketing management

No abstract availabl

Optical conductivity and the correlation strength of high-temperature copper-oxide superconductors

Since their discovery in 1986, the high-temperature copper-oxide superconductors have been a central object of study in condensed-matter physics. Their highly unusual properties are widely ( although not universally) believed to be a consequence of electron-electron interactions that are so strong that the traditional paradigms of condensed-matter physics do not apply: instead, entirely new concepts and techniques are required to describe the physics. In particular, the superconductivity is obtained by adding carriers to insulating 'parent compounds'. These parent compounds have been identified(1) as 'Mott' insulators, in which the lack of conduction arises from anomalously strong electron-electron repulsion. The unusual properties of Mott insulators are widely(2) believed to be responsible for the high-temperature superconductivity. Here, we present a comparison of new theoretical calculations and published(3-8) optical conductivity measurements, which challenges this belief. The analysis indicates that the correlation strength in the cuprates is not as strong as previously believed, in particular that the materials are not properly regarded as Mott insulators. Rather, antiferromagnetism seems to be necessary to obtain the insulating state. By implication, antiferromagnetism is essential to the properties of the doped metallic and superconducting state as well. RI Capone, Massimo/A-7762-2008; de' Medici, Luca/H-5071-201

Characterizing the insulator adjacent to the superconductor in Bi 2Sr 2-x La xCuO 6+δ (x=0.3)

71.30.+h Metal-insulator transitions and other electronic transitions, 72.70.+m Noise processes and phenomena, 74.72.Hs Bi-based cuprates,