Finite-temperature properties of extended Nagaoka ferromagnetism: Ordering processes and precursor of a quantum phase transition between itinerant ferromagnetic and Mott antiferromagnetic states

Abstract

We study finite-temperature properties of a Hubbard model including sites of a particle bath, which was proposed as a microscopic model to show itinerant ferromagnetism at finite electron density. We use direct numerical methods, such as exact diagonalization and random vector methods. The temperature dependence of quantities is surveyed in the full range of the temperature. We find that the specific heat has several peaks, which correspond to ordering processes in different energy scales. In particular, magnetic correlations develop at very low temperature. The system exhibits an itinerant ferromagnetic state or an antiferromagnetic state of the Mott insulator depending on the chemical potential of the particle bath and the Coulomb interaction. From a microscopic viewpoint, the competition between these two types of magnetic states causes a peculiar ordering process of local spin correlations. Some local ferromagnetic correlations are found to be robust, which indicates that the ferromagnetic correlation originates from the motion of itinerant electrons in a short-range cluster.