Optical excitations of Peierls-Mott insulators with bond disorder

The density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is employed to calculate optical properties of the half-filled Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor interactions. In order to model the optical excitations of oligoenes, a Peierls dimerization is included whose strength for the single bonds may fluctuate. Systems with up to 100 electrons are investigated, their wave functions are analyzed, and relevant length-scales for the low-lying optical excitations are identified. The presented approach provides a concise picture for the size dependence of the optical absorption in oligoenes.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Strong-coupling approach to the Mott--Hubbard insulator on a Bethe lattice in Dynamical Mean-Field Theory

We calculate the Hubbard bands for the half-filled Hubbard model on a Bethe lattice with infinite coordination number up to and including third order in the inverse Hubbard interaction. We employ the Kato--Takahashi perturbation theory to solve the self-consistency equation of the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory analytically for the single-impurity Anderson model in multi-chain geometry. The weight of the secondary Hubbard sub-bands is of fourth order so that the two-chain geometry is sufficient for our study. Even close to the Mott--Hubbard transition, our results for the Mott--Hubbard gap agree very well with those from numerical Dynamical Density-Matrix Renormalization Group (DDMRG) calculations. The density of states of the lower Hubbard band also agrees very well with DDMRG data, apart from a resonance contribution at the upper band edge which cannot be reproduced in low-order perturbation theory.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figure

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

Response of Bose gases in time-dependent optical superlattices

The dynamic response of ultracold Bose gases in one-dimensional optical lattices and superlattices is investigated based on exact numerical time evolutions in the framework of the Bose-Hubbard model. The system is excited by a temporal amplitude modulation of the lattice potential, as it was done in recent experiments. For regular lattice potentials, the dynamic signatures of the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition are studied and the position and the fine-structure of the resonances is explained by a linear response analysis. Using direct simulations and the perturbative analysis it is shown that in the presence of a two-colour superlattice the excitation spectrum changes significantly when going from the homogeneous Mott-insulator the quasi Bose-glass phase. A characteristic and experimentally accessible signature for the quasi Bose-glass is the appearance of low-lying resonances and a suppression of the dominant resonance of the Mott-insulator phase.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures; added references and corrected typo

Excitons in one-dimensional Mott insulators

We employ dynamical density-matrix renormalization group (DDMRG) and field-theory methods to determine the frequency-dependent optical conductivity in one-dimensional extended, half-filled Hubbard models. The field-theory approach is applicable to the regime of `small' Mott gaps which is the most difficult to access by DDMRG. For very large Mott gaps the DDMRG recovers analytical results obtained previously by means of strong-coupling techniques. We focus on exciton formation at energies below the onset of the absorption continuum. As a consequence of spin-charge separation, these Mott-Hubbard excitons are bound states of spinless, charged excitations (`holon-antiholon' pairs). We also determine exciton binding energies and sizes. In contrast to simple band insulators, we observe that excitons exist in the Mott-insulating phase only for a sufficiently strong intersite Coulomb repulsion. Furthermore, our results show that the exciton binding energy and size are not related in a simple way to the strength of the Coulomb interaction.Comment: 15 pages, 6 eps figures, corrected typos in labels of figures 4,5, and

Dispersive spectrum and orbital order of spinless p-band fermions in an optical lattice

We study single-particle properties of a spinless p-band correlated fermionic gas in an optical lattice by means of a variational cluster approach (VCA). The single-particle spectral function is almost flat at half-filling and develops a strongly dispersive behavior at lower fillings. The competition between different orbital orderings is studied as a function of filling. We observe that an ``antiferromagnetic'' orbital order develops at half-filling and is destroyed by doping the system evolving into a disordered orbital state. At low filling limit, we discuss the possibility of ``ferromagnetic'' orbital order by complementing the VCA result with observations based on a trial wave function. We also study the behavior of the momentum distribution for different values of the on-site interaction. Finally, we introduce an integration contour in the complex plane which allows to efficiently carry out Matsubara-frequency sums.Comment: published versio

Bose-Fermi mixtures in 1D optical superlattices

The zero temperature phase diagram of binary boson-fermion mixtures in two-colour superlattices is investigated. The eigenvalue problem associated with the Bose-Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonian is solved using an exact numerical diagonalization technique, supplemented by an adaptive basis truncation scheme. The physically motivated basis truncation allows to access larger systems in a fully controlled and very flexible framework. Several experimentally relevant observables, such as the matter-wave interference pattern and the condensatefraction, are investigated in order to explore the rich phase diagram. At symmetric half filling a phase similar to the Mott-insulating phase in a commensurate purely bosonic system is identified and an analogy to recent experiments is pointed out. Furthermore a phase of complete localization of the bosonic species generated by the repulsive boson-fermion interaction is identified. These localized condensates are of a different nature than the genuine Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Dynamical density correlation function of 1D Mott insulators in a magnetic field

We consider the one dimensional (1D) extended Hubbard model at half filling in the presence of a magnetic field. Using field theory techniques we calculate the dynamical density-density correlation function $\chi_{nn}(\omega,q)$ in the low-energy limit. When excitons are formed, a singularity appears in $\chi_{nn}(\omega,q)$ at a particular energy and momentum transfer.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Multi-band Gutzwiller wave functions for general on-site interactions

We introduce Gutzwiller wave functions for multi-band models with general on-site Coulomb interactions. As these wave functions employ correlators for the exact atomic eigenstates they are exact both in the non-interacting and in the atomic limit. We evaluate them in infinite lattice dimensions for all interaction strengths without any restrictions on the structure of the Hamiltonian or the symmetry of the ground state. The results for the ground-state energy allow us to derive an effective one-electron Hamiltonian for Landau quasi-particles, applicable for finite temperatures and frequencies within the Fermi-liquid regime. As applications for a two-band model we study the Brinkman-Rice metal-to-insulator transition at half band-filling, and the transition to itinerant ferromagnetism for two specific fillings, at and close to a peak in the density of states of the non-interacting system. Our new results significantly differ from those for earlier Gutzwiller wave functions where only density-type interactions were included. When the correct spin symmetries for the two-electron states are taken into account, the importance of the Hund's-rule exchange interaction is even more pronounced and leads to paramagnetic metallic ground states with large local magnetic moments. Ferromagnetism requires fairly large interaction strengths, and the resulting ferromagnetic state is a strongly correlated metal.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B 57 (March 15, 1998

Symmetry-projected variational approach for ground and excited states of the two-dimensional Hubbard model

We present a symmetry-projected configuration mixing scheme to describe ground and excited states, with well defined quantum numbers, of the two-dimensional Hubbard model with nearestneighbor hopping and periodic boundary conditions. Results for the half-filled 2{\times}4, 4{\times}4, and 6{\times}6 lattices, as well as doped 4 {\times} 4 systems, compare well with available results, both exact and from other state-of-the-art approximations. We report spectral functions and density of states obtained from a well-controlled ansatz for the (Ne {\pm} 1)-electron system. Symmetry projected methods have been widely used for the many-body nuclear physics problem but have received little attention in the solid state community. Given their relatively low (mean-field) computational cost and the high quality of results here reported, we believe that they deserve further scrutiny