Temperature and Dimensionality Dependences of Optical Absorption Spectra in Mott Insulators

We investigate the temperature dependence of optical absorption spectra of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) Mott insulators by using an effective model in the strong-coupling limit of a half-filed Hubbard model. In the numerically exact diagonalization calculations on finite-size clusters, we find that in 1D the energy position of the absorption edge is almost independent of temperature, while in 2D the edge position shifts to lower energy with increasing temperature. The different temperature dependence between 1D and 2D is attributed to the difference of the coupling of the charge and spin degrees of freedom. The implications of the results on experiments are discussed in terms of the dimensionality dependence.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Perturbation theory for optical excitations in the one-dimensional extended Peierls--Hubbard model

For the one-dimensional, extended Peierls--Hubbard model we calculate analytically the ground-state energy and the single-particle gap to second order in the Coulomb interaction for a given lattice dimerization. The comparison with numerically exact data from the Density-Matrix Renormalization Group shows that the ground-state energy is quantitatively reliable for Coulomb parameters as large as the band width. The single-particle gap can almost triple from its bare Peierls value before substantial deviations appear. For the calculation of the dominant optical excitations, we follow two approaches. In Wannier theory, we perturb the Wannier exciton states to second order. In two-step perturbation theory, similar in spirit to the GW-BSE approach, we form excitons from dressed electron-hole excitations. We find the Wannier approach to be superior to the two-step perturbation theory. For singlet excitons, Wannier theory is applicable up to Coulomb parameters as large as half band width. For triplet excitons, second-order perturbation theory quickly fails completely.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, submtted to JSTA

Equation of state for the two component Van der Waals gas with relativistic excluded volumes

A canonical partition function for the two-component excluded volume model is derived, leading to two di erent van der Waals approximations. The one is known as the Lorentz-Berthelot mixture and the other has been proposed recently. Both models are analysed in the canonical and grand canonical ensemble. In comparison with the one-component van der Waals excluded volume model the suppression of particle densities is reduced in these two-component formulations, but in two essentially di erent ways. Presently used multi-component models have no such reduction. They are shown to be not correct when used for components with di erent hard-core radii. For high temperatures the excluded volume interaction is refined by accounting for the Lorentz contraction of the spherical excluded volumes, which leads to a distinct enhancement of lighter particles. The resulting e ects on pion yield ratios are studied for AGS and SPS data

Antiferromagnetic order in multi-band Hubbard models for iron-pnictides

We investigate multi-band Hubbard models for the three iron 3$d$-$t_{2g}$ bands and the two iron 3$d$-$e_g$ bands in ${\rm La O Fe As}$ by means of the Gutzwiller variational theory. Our analysis of the paramagnetic ground state shows that neither Hartree--Fock mean-field theories nor effective spin models describe these systems adequately. In contrast to Hartree--Fock-type approaches, the Gutzwiller theory predicts that antiferromagnetic order requires substantial values of the local Hund's-rule exchange interaction. For the three-band model, the antiferromagnetic moment fits experimental data for a broad range of interaction parameters. However, for the more appropriate five-band model, the iron $e_g$ electrons polarize the $t_{2g}$ electrons and they substantially contribute to the ordered moment.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Exact diagonalization study of optical conductivity in two-dimensional Hubbard model

The optical conductivity \sigma(\omega) in the two-dimensional Hubbard model is examined by applying the exact diagonalization technique to small square clusters with periodic boundary conditions up to \sqrt{20} X \sqrt{20} sites. Spectral-weight distributions at half filling and their doping dependence in the 20-site cluster are found to be similar to those in a \sqrt{18} X \sqrt{18} cluster, but different from 4 X 4 results. The results for the 20-site cluster enable us to perform a systematic study of the doping dependence of the spectral-weight transfer from the region of the Mott-gap excitation to lower-energy regions. We discuss the dependence of the Drude weight and the effective carrier number on the electron density at a large on-site Coulomb interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Fermi-Hubbard physics with atoms in an optical lattice

The Fermi-Hubbard model is a key concept in condensed matter physics and provides crucial insights into electronic and magnetic properties of materials. Yet, the intricate nature of Fermi systems poses a barrier to answer important questions concerning d-wave superconductivity and quantum magnetism. Recently, it has become possible to experimentally realize the Fermi-Hubbard model using a fermionic quantum gas loaded into an optical lattice. In this atomic approach to the Fermi-Hubbard model the Hamiltonian is a direct result of the optical lattice potential created by interfering laser fields and short-ranged ultracold collisions. It provides a route to simulate the physics of the Hamiltonian and to address open questions and novel challenges of the underlying many-body system. This review gives an overview of the current efforts in understanding and realizing experiments with fermionic atoms in optical lattices and discusses key experiments in the metallic, band-insulating, superfluid and Mott-insulating regimes.Comment: Posted with permission from the Annual Review of of Condensed Matter Physics Volume 1 \c{opyright} 2010 by Annual Reviews, http://www.annualreviews.or

Application of the Density Matrix Renormalization Group in momentum space

We investigate the application of the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) to the Hubbard model in momentum-space. We treat the one-dimensional models with dispersion relations corresponding to nearest-neighbor hopping and $1/r$ hopping and the two-dimensional model with isotropic nearest-neighbor hopping. By comparing with the exact solutions for both one-dimensional models and with exact diagonalization in two dimensions, we first investigate the convergence of the ground-state energy. We find variational convergence of the energy with the number of states kept for all models and parameter sets. In contrast to the real-space algorithm, the accuracy becomes rapidly worse with increasing interaction and is not significantly better at half filling. We compare the results for different dispersion relations at fixed interaction strength over bandwidth and find that extending the range of the hopping in one dimension has little effect, but that changing the dimensionality from one to two leads to lower accuracy at weak to moderate interaction strength. In the one-dimensional models at half-filling, we also investigate the behavior of the single-particle gap, the dispersion of spinon excitations, and the momentum distribution function. For the single-particle gap, we find that proper extrapolation in the number of states kept is important. For the spinon dispersion, we find that good agreement with the exact forms can be achieved at weak coupling if the large momentum-dependent finite-size effects are taken into account for nearest-neighbor hopping. For the momentum distribution, we compare with various weak-coupling and strong-coupling approximations and discuss the importance of finite-size effects as well as the accuracy of the DMRG.Comment: 15 pages, 11 eps figures, revtex

Optical conductivity of the half-filled Hubbard chain

We combine well-controlled analytical and numerical methods to determine the optical conductivity of the one-dimensional Mott-Hubbard insulator at zero temperature. A dynamical density-matrix renormalization group method provides the entire absorption spectrum for all but very small coupling strengths. In this limit we calculate the conductivity analytically using exact field-theoretical methods. Above the Lieb-Wu gap the conductivity exhibits a characteristic square-root increase. For small to moderate interactions, a sharp maximum occurs just above the gap. For larger interactions, another weak feature becomes visible around the middle of the absorption band.Comment: 4 pages with 3 eps figures, published version (changes in text and references

Comparing pertinent effects of antiferromagnetic fluctuations in the two and three dimensional Hubbard model

We use the dynamical vertex approximation (D$\Gamma$A) with a Moriyaesque $\lambda$ correction for studying the impact of antiferromagnetic fluctuations on the spectral function of the Hubbard model in two and three dimensions. Our results show the suppression of the quasiparticle weight in three dimensions and dramatically stronger impact of spin fluctuations in two dimensions where the pseudogap is formed at low enough temperatures. Even in the presence of the Hubbard subbands, the origin of the pseudogap at weak-to-intermediate coupling is in the splitting of the quasiparticle peak. At stronger coupling (closer to the insulating phase) the splitting of Hubbard subbands is expected instead. The $\mathbf{k}$-dependence of the self energy appears to be also much more pronounced in two dimensions as can be observed in the $\mathbf{k}$-resolved D$\Gamma$A spectra, experimentally accessible by angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy in layered correlated systems.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Mott-Hubbard transition in infinite dimensions

We calculate the zero-temperature gap and quasiparticle weight of the half-filled Hubbard model with a random dispersion relation. After extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit, we obtain reliable bounds on these quantities for the Hubbard model in infinite dimensions. Our data indicate that the Mott-Hubbard transition is continuous, i.e., that the quasiparticle weight becomes zero at the same critical interaction strength at which the gap opens.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 5 figures included with epsfig Final version for PRL, includes L=14 dat