Doping dependence of spin fluctuations and electron correlations in iron pnictides

Doping dependence of the spin fluctuations and the electron correlations in the effective five-band Hubbard model for iron pnictides is investigated using the fluctuation-exchange approximation. For a moderate hole doping, we find a dominant low-energy spin excitation at Q=(\pi,0), which becomes critical at low temperature. The low-energy spin excitations in the heavily hole-doped region are characterized by weak Q dependence. The electron doping leads to an appearance of a pseudogap in spin excitation spectrum. Correspondingly, the NMR-1/T1 relaxation rate is strongly enhanced on the hole-doped side and suppressed on the electron-doped side of the phase diagram. This behavior can be to large extent understood by systematic changes of the Fermi-surface topology.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Disproportionation and Metallization at Low-Spin to High-Spin Transition in Multiorbital Mott Systems

We study the thermally driven spin state transition in a two-orbital Hubbard model with crystal field splitting, which provides a minimal description of the physics of LaCoO3. We employ the dynamical mean-field theory with quantum Monte-Carlo impurity solver. At intermediate temperatures we find a spin disproportionated phase characterized by checkerboard order of sites with small and large spin moments. The high temperature transition from the disproportionated to a homogeneous phase is accompanied by vanishing of the charge gap. With the increasing crystal-field splitting the temperature range of the disproportionated phase shrinks and eventually disappears completely.Comment: 4+ pages, 4 figure

Phase diagram and Gap anisotropy in Iron-Pnictide Superconductors

Using the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approximation we study an effective five-band Hubbard model for iron-pnictide superconductors obtained from the first-principles band structure. We preclude deformations of the Fermi surface due to electronic correlations by introducing a static potential, which mimics the effect of charge relaxation. Evaluating the Eliashberg equation for various dopings and interaction parameters, we find that superconductivity can sustain higher hole than electron doping. Analyzing the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter we observe clear differences between the hole and electron doped systems. We discuss the importance of the pnictogen height for superconductivity. Finally, we dissect the pairing interaction into various contributions, which allows us to clarify the relationship between the superconducting transition temperature and the proximity to the anti-ferromagnetic phase.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure

Numerical calculation of spectral functions of the Bose-Hubbard model using B-DMFT

We calculate the momentum dependent spectral function of the Bose-Hubbard model on a simple cubic lattice in three dimensions within the bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (B-DMFT). The continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method is used to solve the self-consistent B-DMFT equations together with the maximum entropy method for the analytic continuation to real frequencies. Results for weak, intermediate, and strong interactions are presented. In the limit of weak and strong interactions very good agreement with results obtained by perturbation theory is found. By contrast, at intermediate interactions the results differ significantly, indicating that in this regime perturbative methods fail do describe the dynamics of interacting bosons.Comment: Bigger figures in version 2; no significant changes in tex

Correlations in a band insulator

We study a model of a covalent band insulator with on-site Coulomb repulsion at half-filling using dynamical mean-field theory. Upon increasing the interaction strength the system undergoes a discontinuous transition from a correlated band insulator to a Mott insulator with hysteretic behavior at low temperatures. Increasing the temperature in the band insulator close to the insulator-insulator transition we find a crossover to a Mott insulator at elevated temperatures. Remarkably, correlations decrease the energy gap in the correlated band insulator. The gap renormalization can be traced to the low-frequency behavior of the self-energy, analogously to the quasiparticle renormalization in a Fermi liquid. While the uncorrelated band insulator is characterized by a single gap for both charge and spin excitations, the spin gap is smaller than the charge gap in the correlated system.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure