Correlations and Renormalization of the Electron-Phonon Coupling in the Honeycomb Hubbard Ladder and Superconductivity in Polyacene

We have performed extensive density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) studies of the Hubbard model on a honeycomb ladder. The band structure (with Hubbard U=0) exhibits an unusual quadratic band touching at half filling, which is associated with a quantum Lifshitz transition from a band insulator to a metal. %SAK as a function of a third-neighbor hopping parameter. For one electron per site, non-zero $U$ drives the system into an insulating state in which there is no pair-binding between added electrons; this implies that superconductivity driven directly by the repulsive electron-electron interactions is unlikely in the regime of small doping, $x\ll 1$. However, the divergent density of states as $x\to 0$, the large values of the phonon frequencies, and an unusual correlation induced enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling imply that lightly doped polyacenes, which approximately realize this structure, are good candidates for high temperature electron-phonon driven superconductivity

Tunable Electron Interactions and Fractional Quantum Hall States in Graphene

The recent discovery of fractional quantum Hall states in graphene raises the question of whether the physics of graphene and its bilayer offers any advantages over GaAs-based materials in exploring strongly-correlated states of two-dimensional electrons. Here we propose a method to continuously tune the effective electron interactions in graphene and its bilayer by the dielectric environment of the sample. Using this method, the charge gaps of prominent FQH states, including \nu=1/3 or \nu=5/2 states, can be increased several times, or reduced all the way to zero. The tunability of the interactions can be used to realize and stabilize various strongly correlated phases in the FQH regime, and to explore the transitions between them.Comment: 4.2 pages, 5 figure

Internal screening and dielectric engineering in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MA-tBLG) has appeared as a tunable testing ground to investigate the conspiracy of electronic interactions, band structure, and lattice degrees of freedom to yield exotic quantum many-body ground states in a two-dimensional Dirac material framework. While the impact of external parameters such as doping or magnetic field can be conveniently modified and analyzed, the all-surface nature of the quasi-2D electron gas combined with its intricate internal properties pose a challenging task to characterize the quintessential nature of the different insulating and superconducting states found in experiments. We analyze the interplay of internal screening and dielectric environment on the intrinsic electronic interaction profile of MA-tBLG. We find that interlayer coupling generically enhances the internal screening. The influence of the dielectric environment on the effective interaction strength depends decisively on the electronic state of MA-tBLG. Thus, we propose the experimental tailoring of the dielectric environment, e.g. by varying the capping layer composition and thickness, as a promising pursuit to provide further evidence for resolving the hidden nature of the quantum many-body states in MA-tBLG.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, supplemental material included (8 figures

Optimal Tc_c of cuprates: role of screening and reservoir layers

We explore the role of charge reservoir layers (CRLs) on the superconducting transition temperature of cuprate superconductors. Specifically, we study the effect of CRLs with efficient short distance dielectric screening coupled capacitively to copper oxide metallic layers. We argue that dielectric screening at short distances and at frequencies of the order of the superconducting gap, but small compared to the Fermi energy can significantly enhance T$_c$, the transition temperature of an unconventional superconductor. We discuss the relevance of our qualitative arguments to a broader class of unconventional superconductors.Comment: 8 Pages, 4 figure

Spinon confinement and the Haldane gap in SU(n) spin chains

We use extensive DMRG calculations to show that a classification of SU(n) spin chains with regard to the existence of spinon confinement and hence a Haldane gap obtained previously for valence bond solid models applies to SU(n) Heisenberg chains as well. In particular, we observe spinon confinement due to a next-nearest neighbor interaction in the SU(4) representation 10 spin chain.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Functional renormalization group study of an eight-band model for the iron arsenides

We investigate the superconducting pairing instabilities of eight-band models for the iron arsenides. Using a functional renormalization group treatment, we determine how the critical energy scale for superconductivity depends on the electronic band structure. Most importantly, if we vary the parameters from values corresponding to LaFeAsO to SmFeAsO, the pairing scale is strongly enhanced, in accordance with the experimental observation. We analyze the reasons for this trend and compare the results of the eight-band approach to those found using five-band models.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure