Hubbard Chain Research Articles

Optical conductivity of the Hubbard chain away from half filling

We consider the optical conductivity $\sigma_1(\omega)$ in the metallic phase of the one-dimensional Hubbard model. Our results focus on the vicinity of half filling and the frequency regime around the optical gap in the Mott insulating phase. By means of a density-matrix renormalization group implementation of the correction-vector approach, $\sigma_1(\omega)$ is computed for a range of interaction strengths and dopings. We identify an energy scale $E_{\rm opt}$ above which the optical conductivity shows a rapid increase. We then use a mobile impurity model in combination with exact results to determine the behavior of $\sigma_1(\omega)$ for frequencies just above $E_{\rm opt}$ which is in agreement with our numerical data. As a main result, we find that this onset behavior is not described by a power law.

Mott Quantum Criticality in the Anisotropic 2D Hubbard Model.

We present evidence for Mott quantum criticality in an anisotropic two-dimensional system of coupled Hubbard chains at half-filling. In this scenario emerging from variational cluster approximation and cluster dynamical mean-field theory, the interchain hopping t_{⊥} acts as a control parameter driving the second-order critical end point T_{c} of the metal-insulator transition down to zero at t_{⊥}^{c}/t≃0.2. Below t_{⊥}^{c}, the volume of the hole and electron Fermi pockets of a compensated metal vanishes continuously at the Mott transition. Above t_{⊥}^{c}, the volume reduction of the pockets is cut off by a first-order transition. We discuss the relevance of our findings to a putative quantum critical point in layered organic conductors, whose location remains elusive so far.

Effective Hamiltonian for a half-filled asymmetric ionic Hubbard chain with alternating on-site interaction

We derive an effective spin Hamiltonian for the one-dimensional half-filled asymmetric ionic Hubbard model (IHM) with alternating on-site interaction in the limit of strong repulsion. It is shown that the effective Hamiltonian is that of a spin S = 1/2 anisotropic XXZ Heisenberg chain with alternating next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) and three-spin couplings in the presence of a uniform and a staggered magnetic field.

Phase diagram of the interacting Majorana chain model

The Hubbard chain and spinless fermion chain are paradigms of strongly correlated systems, very well understood using Bethe ansatz, Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) and field theory/renormalization group (RG) methods. They have been applied to one-dimensional materials and have provided important insights for understanding higher dimensional cases. Recently, a new interacting fermion model has been introduced, with possible applications to topological materials. It has a single Majorana fermion operator on each lattice site and interactions with the shortest possible range that involve 4 sites. We present a thorough analysis of the phase diagram of this model in one dimension using field theory/RG and DMRG methods. It includes a gapped supersymmetric region and a novel gapless phase with coexisting Luttinger liquid and Ising degrees of freedom. In addition to a first order transition, three critical points occur: tricritical Ising, Lifshitz and a novel generalization of the commensurate-incommensurate transition. We also survey various gapped phases of the system that arise when the translation symmetry is broken by dimerization and find both trivial and topological phases with 0, 1 and 2 Majorana zero modes bound to the edges of the chain with open boundary conditions.

Erratum: Many-body localization and thermalization in disordered Hubbard chains [Phys. Rev. A92, 041601(R) (2015)

Received 28 October 2015DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.059902©2015 American Physical Society

Many-body localization and thermalization in disordered Hubbard chains

We study the many-body localization transition in one-dimensional Hubbard chains using exact diagonalization and quantum chaos indicators. We also study dynamics in the delocalized (ergodic) and localized phases and discuss thermalization and eigenstate thermalization, or the lack thereof, in such systems. Consistently within the indicators and observables studied, we find that ergodicity is very robust against disorder, namely, even in the presence of weak Hubbard interactions the disorder strength needed for the system to localize is large. We show that this robustness might be hidden by finite size effects in experiments with ultracold fermions.

Current characteristics of a one-dimensional Hubbard chain: Role of correlation and dissipation

We study the electronic transport in an infinite one-dimensional Hubbard chain, driven by a homogeneous electric field. The physical chain is coupled to fermion bath chains, in order to account for dissipation and to prevent the occurrence of Bloch Oscillations. The steady state current is computed in the frame of Keldysh Green's functions in Cluster Perturbation Theory. The current characteristics are dominated by resonant-tunneling-like structures, which can be traced back to Wannier-Stark resonances due to anti-ferromagnetic correlations. The same current characteristic occurs in a non-interacting Wannier-Stark model with alternating on-site energies. Non-local effects of the self energy can be accounted for the observed physical behaviour.

Magnetic End States in a Strongly Interacting One-Dimensional Topological Kondo Insulator

Topological Kondo insulators are strongly correlated materials, where itinerant electrons hybridize with localized spins giving rise to a topologically non-trivial band structure. Here we use non-perturbative bosonization and renormalization group techniques to study theoretically a one-dimensional topological Kondo insulator. It is described as a Kondo-Heisenberg model where the Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain is coupled to a Hubbard chain through a Kondo exchange interaction in the p-wave channel - a strongly correlated version of the prototypical Tamm-Shockley model. We derive and solve renormalization group equations at two-loop order in the Kondo parameter, and find that, at half-filling, the charge degrees of freedom in the Hubbard chain acquire a Mott gap, even in the case of a non-interacting conduction band (Hubbard parameter $U=0$). Furthermore, at low enough temperatures, the system maps onto a spin-1/2 ladder with local ferromagnetic interactions along the rungs, effectively locking the spin degrees of freedom into a spin-$1$ chain with frozen charge degrees of freedom. This structure behaves as a spin-1 Haldane chain, a prototypical interacting topological spin model, and features two magnetic spin-$1/2$ end states for chains with open boundary conditions. Our analysis allows to derive an insightful connection between topological Kondo insulators in one spatial dimension and the well-known physics of the Haldane chain, showing that the ground state of the former is qualitatively different from the predictions of the naive mean-field theory.

Ground-state and spectral properties of an asymmetric Hubbard ladder

We investigate a ladder system with two inequivalent legs, namely a Hubbard chain and a one-dimensional electron gas. Analytical approximations, the density matrix renormalization group method, and continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine ground-state properties, gaps, and spectral functions of this system at half-filling. Evidence for the existence of four different phases as a function of the Hubbard interaction and the rung hopping is presented. First, a Luttinger liquid exists at very weak interchain hopping. Second, a Kondo-Mott insulator with spin and charge gaps induced by an effective rung exchange coupling is found at moderate interchain hopping or strong Hubbard interaction. Third, a spin-gapped paramagnetic Mott insulator with incommensurate excitations and pairing of doped charges is observed at intermediate values of the rung hopping and the interaction. Fourth, the usual correlated band insulator is recovered for large rung hopping. We show that the wavenumbers of the lowest single-particle excitations are different in each insulating phase. In particular, the three gapped phases exhibit markedly different spectral functions. We discuss the relevance of asymmetric two-leg ladder systems as models for atomic wires deposited on a substrate.

The particle-hole transformation, supersymmetry and achiral boundaries of the open Hubbard model

We show that the particle-hole transformation in the Hubbard model has a crucial role in relating Shastry's R-matrix to the AdS/CFT S-matrix. In addition, we construct an achiral boundary for the open Hubbard chain which possesses twisted Yangian symmetry.

Infinitely dimensional lax structure for the one-dimensional Hubbard model.

We report a two-parametric irreducible infinitely dimensional representation of the Lax integrability condition for the Fermi Hubbard chain. In addition to being of fundamental interest, hinting at possible novel quantum symmetry of the model, our construction allows for an explicit representation of an exact steady state many-body density operator for a nonequilibrium boundary-driven Hubbard chain with arbitrary (asymmetric) particle source (sink) rates at the left (right) end of the chain and with arbitrary boundary values of chemical potentials.

Non-Gaussian spatial correlations dramatically weaken localization.

We perform variational studies of the interaction-localization problem to describe the interaction-induced renormalizations of the effective (screened) random potential seen by quasiparticles. Here we present results of careful finite-size scaling studies for the conductance of disordered Hubbard chains at half-filling and zero temperature. While our results indicate that quasiparticle wave functions remain exponentially localized even in the presence of moderate to strong repulsive interactions, we show that interactions produce a strong decrease of the characteristic conductance scale g^{*} signaling the crossover to strong localization. This effect, which cannot be captured by a simple renormalization of the disorder strength, instead reflects a peculiar non-Gaussian form of the spatial correlations of the screened disordered potential, a hitherto neglected mechanism to dramatically reduce the impact of Anderson localization (interference) effects.

Spin and charge dynamics of a quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic metal

We use quantum Monte Carlo simulations to study a finite-temperature dimensional-crossover-driven evolution of spin and charge dynamics in an anisotropic two-dimensional system of weakly coupled Hubbard chains with a half-filled band. The low-temperature behavior of the charge gap indicates a crossover between two distinct energy scales: a high-energy one-dimensional (1D) Mott gap due to the umklapp process and a low-energy gap which stems from long-range antiferromagnetic (AF) spin fluctuations. Away from the 1D regime and at temperature scales above the charge gap, the emergence of a zero-frequency Drude-like feature in the interchain optical conductivity ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ implies the onset of a higher-dimensional metal. In this metallic phase, enhanced quasiparticle scattering off finite-range AF spin fluctuations results in incoherent single-particle dynamics. The coupling between spin and charge fluctuations is also seen in the spin dynamical structure factor $S(q,\ensuremath{\omega})$ displaying damped spin excitations (paramagnons) close to the AF wave vector $q=(\ensuremath{\pi},\ensuremath{\pi})$ and particle-hole continua near 1D momentum transfers spanning quasiparticles at the Fermi surface. We relate our results to the charge deconfinement in quasi-1D organic Bechgaard-Fabre salts.

Spin dynamics of Mn pyrochlore lattice in YMn2Zn20-xInx

It is shown in a new class of pyrochlore compound YMn2Zn20-xInx (with x = 2.36) that the spin fluctuation rate (v) is proportional to temperature (v ∝ T) below T0 ~10 K where heavy-fermion(HF)-like behavior is observed. Such a linear T dependence, commonly found in Y(Sc)Mn2 and LiV2O4, is expected for intersecting quasi-1D Hubbard chains, suggesting that the quasi-1D character of the t2g band associated with the pyrochlore lattice plays an important role in the emergence of the HF-like state, where T0 may correspond to intra-chain antiferromagnetic interaction energy between Mn spins.

Phase diagram of an extended t-U-J chain with frustrated exchange interaction

Using the low-energy effective field theory scenario combined Abelian bosonization and renormalization-group techniques, we study the Hubbard chain with additional anisotropic nearest-neighbor and isotropic next-nearest-neighbor spin exchanges J and J′ in the weak-coupling regime. The spin correlations are non-critical due to the anisotropic J (Jxy ≠ Jz). The frustrating antiferromagnetic exchange J′ leads to an enhancement of the dimerized phase and induces a long-range charge-density-wave (CDW) phase. For smaller values of J′ (J′ < 2U/3), the quantum phase diagram consists of the insulating spin-density-wave ( SDW xy, SDW z) and bond-charge-density-wave (BCDW) phases and the triplet superconducting ( TS 0, TS ±) phase. For larger J′ (J′ ≥ 2U/3), a finite CDW phase appears. The result shows that the frustrated spin exchange J′ changes the topological structure of the usual t-U-J chain.

Transport of correlated electrons through disordered chains: A perspective on entanglement, conductance, and disorder averaging

We investigate electron transport in disordered Hubbard chains contacted to macroscopic leads, via the non-equilibrium Green's functions technique. We observe a cross-over of currents and conductances at finite bias which depends on the relative strength of disorder and interactions. The finite-size scaling of the conductance is highly dependent on the interaction strength, and exponential attenuation is not always seen. We provide a proof that the Coherent Potential Approximation, a widely used method for treating disorder averages, fulfils particle conservation at finite bias with or without electron correlations. Finally, our results hint that the observed trends in conductance due to interactions and disorder also appear as signatures in the single-site entanglement entropy.

Equivalence of Rashba-Hubbard and Hubbard chains

We review the fact that U(1) gauge symmetry enables the mapping of one-dimensional Hubbard chains with Rashba-type spin orbit coupling to renormalized Hubbard Hamiltonians. The existence of the mapping has important consequences for the interpretation of ARPES experiments on one-dimensional chains subject to Rashba spin orbit coupling and can be exploited to check for the applicability of the mapping. We show numerical applications of the mapping and consider the implications for bosonization as well as for the Heisenberg-limit of the Hubbard model. In addition we point out the consequences for various generalized Hubbard models.

Spectral function of theU→∞one-dimensional Hubbard model at finite temperature and the crossover to the spin-incoherent regime

The physics of the strongly interacting Hubbard chain (with $t/U \ll 1$) at finite temperatures undergoes a crossover to a spin incoherent regime when the temperature is very small relative to the Fermi energy, but larger than the characteristic spin energy scale. This crossover can be understood by means of Ogata and Shiba's factorized wave function, where charge and spin are totally decoupled, and assuming that the charge remains in the ground state, while the spin is thermally excited and at an effective "spin temperature". We use the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method (tDMRG) to calculate the dynamical contributions of the spin, to reconstruct the single-particle spectral function of the electrons. The crossover is characterized by a redistribution of spectral weight both in frequency and momentum, with an apparent shift by $k_F$ of the minimum of the dispersion.

Quantum-field-theoretical approach to phase–space techniques: Symmetric Wick theorem and multitime Wigner representation

In this work we present the formal background used to develop the methods used in earlier works to extend the truncated Wigner representation of quantum and atom optics in order to address multi-time problems. Analogs of Wick’s theorem for the Weyl ordering are verified. Using the Bose–Hubbard chain as an example, we show how these may be applied to constructing a mapping of the system in question to phase space. Regularisation issues and the reordering problem for the Heisenberg operators are addressed.

Strong Correlations in Density-Functional Theory: A Model of Spin-Charge and Spin-Orbital Separations.

It is known that the separation of electrons into spinons and chargons, the spin-charge separation, plays a decisive role when describing one-dimensional (1D) strongly correlated systems [ Phys. Rev. B 2012 , 86 , 075132 ]. In this paper, within the density-functional theory (DFT) formalism, we extend the investigation by considering a model for the third electron fractionalization: the separation into spinons, chargons and orbitons, the last associated with the electronic orbital degree of freedom. Specifically, we deal with two exact constraints of exchange-correlation (XC) density-functionals: (i) the constancy of the highest occupied (HO) Kohn-Sham (KS) eigenvalues upon fractional electron numbers and (ii) their discontinuities at integers. By means of 1D discrete Hubbard chains and 1D H2 molecules in the continuum, we find that spin-charge separation yields almost constant HO KS eigenvalues, whereas the spin-orbital counterpart can be decisive when describing derivative discontinuities of XC potentials at strong correlations.