Hartree-Fock based diagonalization: an efficient method for simulating disordered interacting electrons

We present an efficient numerical method for simulating the low-energy properties of disordered many-particle systems. The method which is based on the quantum-chemical configuration interaction approach consists in diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in an energetically truncated basis build of the low-energy states of the corresponding Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian. As an example we investigate the quantum Coulomb glass, a model of spinless electrons in a random potential interacting via long-range Coulomb interaction. We find that the Coulomb interaction increases the conductance of strongly disordered systems but reduces the conductance of weakly disordered systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 eps figures included, invited talk at Conference on Computational Physics (Granada, Sep 1998

Transport in disordered interacting systems: Numerical results for one-dimensional spinless electrons

The combined influence of disorder and interactions on the transport properties of electrons in one dimension is investigated. The numerical simulations are carried out by means of the Hartree-Fock-based diagonalization (HFD), a very efficient method to determine the low-energy properties of a disordered many-particle system. We find that the conductance of a strongly localized system can become considerably enhanced by the interactions. The enhancement for long-range interactions is significantly larger than for short-range interactions. In contrast, the conductance of weakly localized systems becomes suppressed by the interactions.Comment: Invited talk presented at Percolation 98, submitted to Physica A, 8 pages, elsart style, 4 eps figures include

Numerische Simulation des Transports in ungeordneten Vielelektronensystemen

Inhalt dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung der Physik des ungeordneten wechselwirkenden Elektronenproblems auf der isolierenden Seite des Metall-Isolator-Uebergangs. Als Modellsystem dient dabei ein verallgemeinertes Coulomb-Glas-Modell mit Transfermatrixelementen zwischen verschiedenen Plaetzen, das Quanten-Coulomb-Glas. Ziel ist, herauszufinden, wie sich die Elektron-Elektron-Wechselwirkung auf die Lokalisierungs- und Transporteigenschaften des Modells auswirkt. Im ersten Teil wird das Quanten-Coulomb-Glas in Hartree-Fock-Naeherung behandelt. Da diese Naeherung eine effektive Einteilchentheorie ist, koennen die Lokalisierungs- und Transporteigenschaften mit denselben Methoden wie beim Anderson-Modell der Lokalisierung untersucht werden. Es erweist sich, dasz die Wechselwirkung im Rahmen einer Einteilchen-Naeherung immer zu einer staerkeren Lokalisierung der Zustaende an der Fermienergie und damit zu einer Verschlechterung des Transports im Vergleich zum nichtwechselwirkenden System fuehrt. Dieses Ergebnis laeszt sich auch gut physikalisch verstehen. Im zweiten Teil steht die Frage nach der Gueltigkeit der Hartree-Fock-Naeherung fuer das Quanten-Coulomb-Glas im Mittelpunkt. Dazu werden die Hartree-Fock-Resultate mit Ergebnissen aus der exakten Diagonalisierung sehr kleiner Gitter verglichen. Es werden Lokalisierungskriterien entwickelt, die einen direkten Vergleich mit den Einteilchenlokalisierungsmaszen gestatten. Zur Beurteilung der Transporteigenschaften dient der Gleichstromleitwert nach dem Kubo-Greenwood-Formalismus. Es zeigt sich, dasz die Hartree-Fock-Naeherung den Transport unterschaetzt und dasz die Wechselwirkung im Vergleich zum nichtwechselwirkenden System bei schwacher Unordnung eine Verringerung des Transports und bei groszer Unordnung eine Erhoehung des Transports bewirkt. In dritten Teil werden Idee und Realisierung einer neuen Naeherung, der Hartree-Fock-basierten Diagonalisierung, diskutiert. Ueberlegungen und Untersuchungen zur Konvergenz von Grundzustandsenergie, Energie der angeregten Zustaende, Einteilchenzustandsdichte, Rueckkehrwahrscheinlichkeit und Leitwert werden vorgenommen. Ergebnisse fuer zweidimensionale Systeme mit 12, 16 und 25 Gitterplaetzen bei Halbfuellung werden vorgestellt. Auszerdem erfolgen Untersuchungen mit verschiedenen Wechselwirkungsstarken fuer ein-, zwei und dreidimensionale Systeme mit 25*1, 5*5 und 3*3*3 Gitterplaetzen. Die Resultate aus dem zweiten Teil bestaetigen sich: Fuer genuegend starke Unordnung induziert Wechselwirkung immer eine staerkere Delokalisierung, fuer genuegend kleine Unordnung immer eine staerkere Lokalisierung.This work investigates the physics of the disordered interacting electron problem on the isolating side of the metal-insulator-transition. A generalized Coulomb-Glass with transfermatrixelements between next neighbours - the Quantum-Coulomb-Glass - serves as model system. The goal is to find out how electron-electron interaction influences the localization and transport properties of the model. In the first part the Quantum-Coulomb-Glass is treated at Hartree-Fock level. Because this approximation is an effective one-particle theory localization and transport properties can be investigated with the same methods as in the Anderson-Model of localization. It ist found that interaction in the framework of an one-particle approximation always leads to an enhanced localization of the states near the Fermi-energy in comparison to the nonintercting system. This also can be well understood within different physically argumentations. The second part centers around the question how valid Hartree-Fock approximation is. Thus Hartree-Fock results are compared with results for exact diagonalization of small lattices. Criteria of localization are developed which allow a direct comparison to measures of single-particle localization. The transport-properties are measured by the zero frequency Kubo-conductance. It shows that Hartree-Fock approximation underestimates the transport and that interaction leads to a decrease of transport in the region of small disorder and to an increase for strong disorder. The third part discusses idea and realisation of a new approximation - the Hartree-Fock-based diagonalization. Aguments and investigations about convergence of ground-state-energy, excited-state-energy, single-particle density of states, return probability and conductance are shown. Results for systems in two dimensions with 12, 16 and 25 sites and half filling are presented. Additionally different interaction strenghts for one-, two- and three-dimensional systems with 25*1, 5*5 and 3*3*3 sites are investigated. The results from part two are hardened: Interaction always leads to enhanced delocalization if disorder is strong enough and always leads to enhanced localization if disorder is small enough

Quantum Coulomb Glass within a Hartree-Fock Approximation

We study the influence of electron-electron interactions on the electronic properties of disordered materials. In particular, we consider the insulating side of a metal-insulator transition where screening breaks down and the electron-electron interaction remains long ranged. The investigations are based on the quantum Coulomb glass, a generalization of the classical Coulomb glass model of disordered insulators. The quantum Coulomb glass is studied by decoupling the Coulomb interaction by means of a Hartree-Fock approximation and exactly diagonalizing the remaining localization problem. We investigate the behavior of the Coulomb gap in the density of states when approaching the metal-insulator transition and study the influence of the interaction on the localization of the electrons. We find that the interaction leads to an enhancement of localization at the Fermi level

Fock space localization, return probability, and conductance of disordered interacting electrons

We numerically simulate the low-energy properties of interacting electrons in a random potential using the Hartree-Fock based exact diagonalization method. In particular, we investigate how the transport properties are influenced by the combined effects of disorder and correlations in the presence of the electron spin. To this end we calculate the participation number of many-particle states in Fock space, the return probability of single-particle excitations, and the Kubo-Greenwood conductance. It turns out that in the strongly localized regime interactions increase the conductance whereas for weak disorder interactions decrease the conductance. In contrast, single-particle excitations in general experience a localizing influence of the interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, Proc. of the Symposium on Wave Propagation and Electronic Structure in Disordered Systems, FORTH, Heraklion, Crete, Greece (June 2000

Investigating the Quality of UAV-Based Images for the Thermographic Analysis of Buildings

Thermography for building audits is commonly carried out by means of terrestrial recording processes with static cameras. The implementation of drones to automatically acquire images from various perspectives can speed up and facilitate the procedure but requires higher recording distances, utilizes changing recording angles and has to contend with the effects of movement during image capture. This study investigates the influence of different drone settings on the quality of thermographic images for building audits in comparison to ground-based acquisition. To this end, several buildings are photographically captured via unmanned aerial vehicle and classical terrestrial means to generate a dataset of 968 images in total. These are analyzed and compared according to five quality criteria that are explicitly chosen for this study to establish best-practice rules for thermal image acquisition. We discover that flight speeds of up to 5 m/s have no visible effects on the image quality. The combination of smaller distances (22 m above a building) and a 45° camera angle are found to allow for both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of rooftops as well as a qualitative screening of building façades. Greater distances of 42 m between camera and building may expedite the acquisition procedure for larger-scaled district coverage but cannot be relied upon for thermal analyses beyond qualitative studies

Do interactions increase or reduce the conductance of disordered electrons? It depends!

We investigate the influence of electron-electron interactions on the conductance of two-dimensional disordered spinless electrons. By using an efficient numerical method which is based on exact diagonalization in a truncated basis of Hartree-Fock states we are able to determine the exact low-energy properties of comparatively large systems in the diffusive as well as in the localized regimes. We find that weak interactions increase the d.c. conductance in the localized regime while they decrease the d.c. conductance in the diffusive regime. Strong interactions always decrease the conductance. We also study the localization of single-particle excitations close to the Fermi energy which turns out to be only weakly influenced by the interactions.Comment: final version as publsihed, 4 pages REVTEX, 6 EPS figures include

Electronic Transport in Disordered Interacting Systems

We numerically investigate the transport properties of disordered interacting electrons in three dimensions in the metallic as well as in the insulating phases. The disordered many-particle problem is modeled by the quantum Coulomb glass which contains a random potential, long-range unscreened Coulomb interactions and quantum hopping between different sites. We have recently developed the Hartree-Fock based diagonalization (HFD) method which amounts to diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in a suitably chosen energetically truncated basis. This method allows us to investigate comparatively large systems. Here we calculate the combined effect of disorder and interactions on the dissipative conductance. We find that the qualitative influence of the interactions on the conductance depends on the relative disorder strength. For strong disorder interactions can significantly enhance the transport while they suppress the conductance for weak disorder