Finite-temperature phase diagram of nonmagnetic impurities in high-temperature superconductors using a d=3 tJ model with quenched disorder

We study a quenched disordered d=3 tJ Hamiltonian with static vacancies as a model of nonmagnetic impurities in high-Tc materials. Using a position-space renormalization-group approach, we calculate the evolution of the finite-temperature phase diagram with impurity concentration p, and find several features with close experimental parallels: away from half-filling we see the rapid destruction of a spin-singlet phase (analogous to the superconducting phase in cuprates) which is eliminated for p > 0.05; in the same region for these dilute impurity concentrations we observe an enhancement of antiferromagnetism. The antiferromagnetic phase near half-filling is robust against impurity addition, and disappears only for p > 0.40.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; replaced with published versio

Strongly Asymmetric Tricriticality of Quenched Random-Field Systems

In view of the recently seen dramatic effect of quenched random bonds on tricritical systems, we have conducted a renormalization-group study on the effect of quenched random fields on the tricritical phase diagram of the spin-1 Ising model in $d=3$. We find that random fields convert first-order phase transitions into second-order, in fact more effectively than random bonds. The coexistence region is extremely flat, attesting to an unusually small tricritical exponent $\beta_u$; moreover, an extreme asymmetry of the phase diagram is very striking. To accomodate this asymmetry, the second-order boundary exhibits reentrance.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 2 figs, submitted to PR

d=3 Anisotropic and d=2 tJ Models: Phase Diagrams, Thermodynamic Properties, and Chemical Potential Shift

The anisotropic d=3 tJ model is studied by renormalization-group theory, yielding the evolution of the system as interplane coupling is varied from the isotropic three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional regimes. Finite-temperature phase diagrams, chemical potential shifts, and in-plane and interplane kinetic energies and antiferromagnetic correlations are calculated for the entire range of electron densities. We find that the novel tau phase, seen in earlier studies of the isotropic d=3 tJ model, and potentially corresponding to the superconducting phase in high-T_c materials, persists even for strong anisotropy. While the tau phase appears at low temperatures at 30-35% hole doping away from =1, at smaller hole dopings we see a complex lamellar structure of antiferromagnetic and disordered regions, with a suppressed chemical potential shift, a possible marker of incommensurate ordering in the form of microscopic stripes. An investigation of the renormalization-group flows for the isotropic two-dimensional tJ model also shows a pre-signature of the tau phase, which appears with finite transition temperatures upon addition of the smallest interplane coupling.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; replaced with published versio

Two Superconducting Phases in the d=3 Hubbard Model: Phase Diagram and Specific Heat from Renormalization-Group Calculations

The phase diagram of the d=3 Hubbard model is calculated as a function of temperature and electron density n_i, in the full range of densities between 0 and 2 electrons per site, using renormalization-group theory. An antiferromagnetic phase occurs at lower temperatures, at and near the half-filling density of = 1. The antiferromagnetic phase is unstable to hole or electron doping of at most 15%, yielding to two distinct "tau" phases: for large coupling U/t, one such phase occurs between 30-35% hole or electron doping, and for small to intermediate coupling U/t another such phase occurs between 10-18% doping. Both tau phases are distinguished by non-zero hole or electron hopping expectation values at all length scales. Under further doping, the tau phases yield to hole- or electron-rich disordered phases. We have calculated the specific heat over the entire phase diagram. The low-temperature specific heat of the weak-coupling tau phase shows a BCS-type exponential decay, indicating a gap in the excitation spectrum, and a cusp singularity at the phase boundary. The strong-coupling tau phase, on the other hand, has characteristics of BEC-type superconductivity, including a critical exponent alpha approximately equal to -1, and an additional peak in the specific heat above the transition temperature indicating pair formation. In the limit of large Coulomb repulsion, the phase diagram of the tJ model is recovered.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; typos in Fig. 2 correcte

Equivalence of the Falicov-Kimball and Brandt-Mielsch forms for the free energy of the infinite-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model

Falicov and Kimball proposed a real-axis form for the free energy of the Falicov-Kimball model that was modified for the coherent potential approximation by Plischke. Brandt and Mielsch proposed an imaginary-axis form for the free energy of the dynamical mean field theory solution of the Falicov-Kimball model. It has long been known that these two formulae are numerically equal to each other; an explicit derivation showing this equivalence is presented here.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, typeset with ReVTe

The 3-d Random Field Ising Model at zero temperature

We study numerically the zero temperature Random Field Ising Model on cubic lattices of various linear sizes $L$ in three dimensions. For each random field configuration we vary the ferromagnetic coupling strength $J$. We find that in the infinite volume limit the magnetization is discontinuous in $J$. The energy and its first $J$ derivative are continuous. The approch to the thermodynamic limit is slow, behaving like $L^{-p}$ with $p \sim .8$ for the gaussian distribution of the random field. We also study the bimodal distribution $h_{i} = \pm h$, and we find similar results for the magnetization but with a different value of the exponent $p \sim .6$. This raises the question of the validity of universality for the random field problem.Comment: 8 pages, 3 PostScript Figure

Simple theory for spin-lattice relaxation in metallic rare earth ferromagnets

The spin-lattice relaxation time $\tau_{SL}$ is a key quantity both for the dynamical response of ferromagnets excited by laser pulses and as the speed limit of magneto-optical recording. Extending the theory for the electron paramagnetic resonance of magnetic impurities to spin-lattice relaxation in ferromagnetic rare earths we calculate $\tau_{SL}$ for Gd and find a value of 48 ps in very good agreement with time-resolved spin-polarized photoemission experiments. We argue that the time scale for $\tau_{SL}$ in metals is essentially given by the spin-orbit induced magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy.Comment: 18 pages revtex, 5 uuencoded figure

Fermion kinetics in the Falicov-Kimball limit of the three-band Emery model

The three-band Emery model is reduced to a single-particle quantum model of Falicov-Kimball type, by allowing only up-spins to hop, and forbidding double occupation by projection. It is used to study the effects of geometric obstruction on mobile fermions in thermodynamic equilibrium. For low hopping overlap, there appears a plateau in the entropy, due to charge correlations, and related to real-space disorder. For large overlap, the equilibrium thermopower susceptibility remains anomalous, with a sign opposite to the one predicted from the single-particle density of states. The heat capacity and non-Fermi liquid response are discussed in the context of similar results in the literature. All results are obtained by evaluation of an effective single-particle free-energy operator in closed form. The method to obtain this operator is described in detail.Comment: New calculations, method explained in detail, 16 pages, 9 figure

Charge-density-wave order parameter of the Falicov-Kimball model in infinite dimensions

In the large-U limit, the Falicov-Kimball model maps onto an effective Ising model, with an order parameter described by a BCS-like mean-field theory in infinite dimensions. In the small-U limit, van Dongen and Vollhardt showed that the order parameter assumes a strange non-BCS-like shape with a sharp reduction near T approx T_c/2. Here we numerically investigate the crossover between these two regimes and qualitatively determine the order parameter for a variety of different values of U. We find the overall behavior of the order parameter as a function of temperature to be quite anomalous.Comment: (5 pages, 3 figures, typeset with ReVTeX4

Comment on ``Spin Polarization and Magnetic Circular Dichroism in Photoemission from the 2p Core Level of Ferromagnetic Ni''

Although the Ni_4 cluster includes more information regarding the Ni band structure with respect to the Anderson impurity model, it also favors very peculiar ground states which are incompatible with a coherent picture of all dichroism experiments.Comment: 1 page, RevTeX, 1 epsf figur