Particle-hole Fluctuations Research Articles

Emergent Fano-Feshbach resonance in two-band superconductors with an incipient quasiflat band: Enhanced critical temperature evading particle-hole fluctuations

Emergent Fano-Feshbach resonance in two-band superconductors with an incipient quasiflat band: Enhanced critical temperature evading particle-hole fluctuations

Dimensional crossover of Fermi polaron in quasi-low-dimensional traps

We study the polaron problem of an impurity immersed in the background of a Fermi sea confined in one-dimensional or two-dimensional isotropic traps. By changing the trapping potential from loose to tight, a dimensional crossover from anisotropically trapped three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) or quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) configurations is investigated by calculating the ground-state energy in a wide range of interaction strength. We adopt a low-dimensional effective Hamiltonian in the form of a two-channel model, where the excited levels in the confined directions are described phenomenologically by a dressed molecule, and use the variational approach up to one pair of particle-hole fluctuations to calculate the energies of polaron and molecule states. We map out the phase diagrams for both quasi-1D and quasi-2D configurations and different mass ratios, and conclude that the polaron phase is preferable with tighter confinement and lighter impurity mass in lower dimensions. We also find that owing to the significant population of excited levels by strong interaction, a strictly low-dimensional system with all particles residing in the ground state of the trap can never work when study polaron-molecule transition, even in the tightly confined limit. This discrepancy has been observed in an experiment of quasi-2D gases of 40K atoms and is well explained by our calculation.

Stability of the Néel quantum critical point in the presence of Dirac fermions

We investigate the stability of the N\'eel quantum critical point of two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets, described by a nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model, in the presence of a Kondo coupling to ${N}_{f}$ flavors of two-component Dirac fermion fields. The long-wavelength order parameter fluctuations are subject to Landau damping by electronic particle-hole fluctuations. Using the momentum-shell renormalization group (RG), we demonstrate that the Landau damping is weakly irrelevant at the N\'eel quantum critical point, despite the fact that the corresponding self-energy correction dominates over the quadratic gradient terms in the IR limit. In the ordered phase, the Landau damping increases under the RG, indicative of damped spin-wave excitations. Although the Kondo coupling is weakly relevant, sufficiently strong Landau damping renders the N\'eel quantum critical point quasistable for ${N}_{f}\ensuremath{\ge}4$ and thermodynamically stable for ${N}_{f}<4$. In the latter case, we identify a multicritical point which describes the transition between the N\'eel critical and Kondo runaway regimes. The symmetry breaking at this fixed point results in the opening of a gap in the Dirac fermion spectrum. Approaching the multicritical point from the disordered phase, the fermionic quasiparticle residue vanishes, giving rise to non-Fermi-liquid behavior.

The Gor'kov and Melik‐Barkhudarov Correction to an Imbalanced Fermi Gas in the Presence of Impurities

AbstractThe effects of induced interactions are calculated in both clean and dirty situations, for balanced and imbalanced Fermi gases. The effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the induced interactions corrections to the transition temperature in the case of a balanced gas, and to the tricritical point in the case of an imbalanced Fermi gas at unitarity are investigated. It is found that impurities act in detriment of the induced interactions, or particle–hole fluctuations, for the transition temperature and the tricritical point. For large impurity parameter, the particle–hole fluctuations are strongly suppressed. The Chandrasekhar–Clogston limit of an imbalanced Fermi gas at unitarity considering the effects of the induced interactions, both in the pure and impurity regimes have also been found.

Efficient Slave-Boson Approach for Multiorbital Two-Particle Response Functions and Superconductivity

We develop an efficient approach for computing two-particle response functions and interaction vertices for multiorbital strongly correlated systems based on fluctuation around rotationally-invariant slave-boson saddle-point. The method is applied to the degenerate three-orbital Hubbard-Kanamori model for investigating the origin of the s-wave orbital antisymmetric spin-triplet superconductivity in the Hund's metal regime, previously found in the dynamical mean-field theory studies. By computing the pairing interaction considering the particle-particle and the particle-hole scattering channels, we identify the mechanism leading to the pairing instability around Hund's metal crossover arises from the particle-particle channel, containing the local electron pair fluctuation between different particle-number sectors of the atomic Hilbert space. On the other hand, the particle-hole spin fluctuations induce the s-wave pairing instability before entering the Hund's regime. Our approach paves the way for investigating the pairing mechanism in realistic correlated materials.

Particle–hole fluctuations and possible superconductivity in doped α-RuCl3**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11674158 and 11774152) and the National Key Projects for Research and Development of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0300401). W. Wang was also supported by the Program B for Outstanding PhD Candidate of Nanjing University.

We study various particle–hole excitations and possible superconducting pairings mediated by these fluctuations in doped α-RuCl3 by using multi-band Hubbard model with all t2g orbitals. By performing a random-phase-approximation (RPA) analysis, we find that among all particle–hole excitations, the jeff = 1/2 pseudospin fluctuations are dominant, suggesting the robustness of jeff = 1/2 picture even in the doped systems. We also find that the most favorable superconducting state has a d-wave pairing symmetry.

Bosonization of Fermi liquids in a weak magnetic field

Novel controlled non-perturbative techniques are a must in the study of strongly correlated systems, especially near quantum criticality. One of these techniques, bosonization, has been extensively used to understand one-dimensional, as well as higher dimensional electronic systems at finite density. In this paper, we generalize the theory of two-dimensional bosonization of Fermi liquids, in the presence of a homogeneous weak magnetic field perpendicular to the plane. Here, we extend the formalism of bosonization to treat free spinless fermions at finite density in a uniform magnetic field. We show that particle-hole fluctuations of a Fermi surface satisfy a {\em covariant Schwinger algebra}, allowing to express a fermionic theory with forward scattering interactions as a quadratic bosonic theory representing the quantum fluctuations of the Fermi surface. By means of a coherent-state path integral formalism we compute the fermion propagator as well as particle-hole bosonic correlations functions. We analyze the presence of de Haas-van Alphen oscillations and show how the quantum oscillations of the orbital magnetization, the Lifshitz-Kosevich theory, are obtained by means of the bosonized theory. We also study the effects of forward scattering interactions. In particular, we obtain oscillatory corrections to the Landau zero sound collective mode.

Electromagnetic modes from Stoner enhancement: Graphene as a case study

In systems with substantial spin fluctuations, dressing the polarization function by ladder diagram of Stoner (spin-flip) excitations can drastically modify the electromagnetic response. As a case study, we provide the detailed analysis of the corrections to the non-local optical conductivity of both doped and undoped graphene. While the resummation of ladder diagram of Stoner excitations does not affect the TE mode in doped graphene, it allows for a new undamped TM mode in undoped graphene. This is the sole effect of corrections arising from ladder diagrams and is dominated by Stoner excitations along the ladder rung which goes away by turning off the source of spin-flip interactions. In the case of doped graphene, the inclusion of spin-flip particle-hole fluctuations reduces the energy of plasmon mode.

High-frequency tail of the radio-frequency spectrum in a unitary Fermi gas with particle–hole fluctuation

The contact plays an important role in the study of ultracold atoms. We determine the contact from the high-frequency asymptotic behavior of radio-frequency spectrum for a homogeneous Fermi gas at unitarity in the normal phase. The contact is obtained within the framework of the non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation with particle–hole fluctuation.

Momentum distribution and the universal contact of a unitary Fermi gas with particle-hole fluctuation

We compute the momentum distribution of a homogeneous Fermi gas at unitarity in the normal phase within the framework of the non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation with particle-hole fluctuation. From the large-momentum behavior of momentum distribution, we obtain the contact for the unitary Fermi gas. We also compare our results with experimental data and other theoretical predictions.

The pressure and entropy of a unitary Fermi gas with particle-hole fluctuation

We calculate the pressure and entropy of a unitary Fermi gas based on universal relations combined with our previous prediction of energy which was calculated within the framework of the non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation with particle-hole fluctuation. The resulting entropy and pressure are compared with the experimental data and the theoretical results without induced interaction. For entropy, we find good agreement between our results with particle-hole fluctuation and the experimental measurements reported by ENS group and MIT experiment. For pressure, our results suffer from a systematic upshift compared to MIT data.

Universal trimers emerging from a spin-orbit-coupled Fermi sea

We report the existence of a universal trimer state induced by an impurity interacting with a two-component spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas in two dimensions. In the zero-density limit with a vanishing Fermi sea, the trimer is stabilized by the symmetry of the single-particle spectrum under spin-orbit coupling, and is therefore universal against the short-range details of the interaction potential. When the Fermi energy increases, we show that the trimer is further stabilized by particle-hole fluctuations over a considerable parameter region. We map out the phase diagram consisting of trimers, dimers, and polarons, and discuss the detection of these states using radio-frequency spectroscopy. The universal trimer revealed in our work is a direct manifestation of intriguing three-body correlations emerging from a many-body environment, which, in our case, is cooperatively supported by the single-particle spectral symmetry and the collective particle-hole excitations.

Specific Heat of a Unitary Fermi Gas Including Particle-Hole Fluctuation**Supported by the Research Fund for Advanced Talents of Jiangsu University under Grant No 14JDG174, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants Nos 11447126, 11275097, 11475085 and 11535005, and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant No BK20130078.

We investigate the particle-hole fluctuation correction to the specific heat of an ultracold Fermi gas at unitarity within the framework of the non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation in the normal phase. We find good agreement between our theoretical predictions and the experimental data measured by the MIT group, apart from discrepancies near the transition temperature. At high temperature, our calculated specific heat has the tendency to approach the specific heat of the Boltzmann gas.

Mechanism, time-reversal symmetry, and topology of superconductivity in noncentrosymmetric systems

We analyze the possible interaction-induced superconducting instabilities in noncentrosymmetric systems based on symmetries of the normal state. It is proven that pure electron-phonon coupling will always lead to a fully gapped superconductor that does not break time-reversal symmetry and is topologically trivial. We show that topologically nontrivial behavior can be induced by magnetic doping without gapping out the resulting Kramers pair of Majorana edge modes. In case of superconductivity arising from the particle-hole fluctuations associated with a competing instability, the properties of the condensate crucially depend on the time-reversal behavior of the order parameter of the competing instability. When the order parameter preserves time-reversal symmetry, we obtain exactly the same properties as in case of phonons. If it is odd under time-reversal, the Cooper channel of the interaction will be fully repulsive leading to sign changes of the gap and making spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking possible. To discuss topological properties, we focus on fully gapped time-reversal symmetric superconductors and derive constraints on possible pairing states that yield necessary conditions for the emergence of topologically nontrivial superconductivity. These conditions might serve as a tool in the search for topological superconductors. We also discuss implications for oxides heterostructures and single-layer FeSe.

Three-body bound states of two bosonic impurities immersed in a Fermi sea in 2D

We consider two identical impurities immersed in a Fermi sea for a broad range of masses and for both interacting and non-interacting impurities. The interaction between the particles is described through attractive zero-range potentials and the problem is solved in momentum space. The two impurities can attach to a fermion from the sea and form three-body bound states. The energy of these states increase as function of the Fermi momentum kF, leading to three-body bound states below the Fermi energy. The fate of the states depends highly on two- and three-body thresholds and we find evidence of medium-induced Borromean-like states in 2D. The corrections due to particle-hole fluctuations in the Fermi sea are considered in the three-body calculations and we show that in spite of the fact that they strongly affect both the two- and three-body systems, the correction to the point at which the three-body states cease to exist is small.

Fluctuation-driven magnetic hard-axis ordering in metallic ferromagnets.

We demonstrate that the interplay between soft electronic particle-hole fluctuations and magnetic anisotropies can drive ferromagnetic moments to point along a magnetic hard axis. As a proof of concept, we show this behavior explicitly for a generic two-band model with local Coulomb and Hund's interactions and a spin-orbit-induced easy plane anisotropy. The phase diagram is calculated within the fermionic quantum order-by-disorder approach, which is based on a self-consistent free-energy expansion around a magnetically ordered state with unspecified orientation. Quantum fluctuations render the transition of the easy-plane ferromagnet first order below a tricritical point. At even lower temperatures, directionally dependent transverse fluctuations dominate the magnetic anisotropy, and the moments flip to lie along the magnetic hard axis. We discuss our findings in the context of recent experiments that show this unusual ordering along the magnetic hard direction.

Quantum Monte Carlo and the Hubbard Model

Here we discuss quantum Monte Carlo and the Hubbard model. We note that while there is a fermion sign problem for the doped Hubbard model, Monte Carlo calculations have shown that the leading pairfield susceptibility has d-wave symmetry and that the pairing interaction is mediated by S = 1 particle-hole fluctuations.

Molecule and Polaron in a Highly Polarized Two-Dimensional Fermi Gas with Spin-Orbit Coupling

We show that spin-orbit coupling (SOC) gives rise to pairing instability in a highly polarized two-dimensional Fermi gas for an arbitrary interaction strength. The pairing instability can lead to a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-like molecular state, which undergoes a first-order transition into a pairing state with zero center-of-mass momentum as the parameters are tuned. These pairing states are metastable against a polaron state dressed by particle-hole fluctuations for small SOC. At large SOC, a polaron-molecule transition exists, which suggests a phase transition between the topological superfluid state and the normal state for a highly polarized Fermi gas in the thermodynamic limit. As polarization in a Fermi gas with SOC is induced by the effective Zeeman field, we also discuss the influences of the effective Zeeman field on the ground state of the system. Our findings may be tested directly in future experiments.

Zero-density-limit extrapolation of the superfluid transition temperature in a unitary atomic Fermi gas on a lattice

The superfluid transition temperature $T_c$ of a unitary Fermi gas on a three-dimensional isotropic lattice with an attractive on-site interaction is investigated as a function of density $n$, from half filling down to $5.0\times 10^{-7}$ per unit cell, using a pairing fluctuation theory. We show that except at very low densities ($n^{1/3} <0.2$), where $T_c/E_F$ is linear in $n^{1/3}$, $T_c/E_F$ exhibits significant higher order nonlinear dependence on $n^{1/3}$. Therefore, linear extrapolation using results at intermediate densities such as in typical quantum Monte Carlo simulations leads to a significant underestimate of the zero density limit of $T_c/E_F$. Our result, $T_c/E_F=0.256$, at $n=0$ is subject to reduction from particle-hole fluctuations and incoherent single particle self energy corrections.

Quantum Order-by-Disorder Near Criticality and the Secret of Partial Order in MnSi

The vicinity of quantum phase transitions has proven fertile ground in the search for new quantum phases. We propose a physically motivated and unifying description of phase reconstruction near metallic quantum-critical points using the idea of quantum order by disorder. Certain deformations of the Fermi surface associated with the onset of competing order enhance the phase space available for low-energy, particle-hole fluctuations and self-consistently lower the free energy. Applying the notion of quantum order by disorder to the itinerant helimagnet MnSi, we show that, near the quantum critical point, fluctuations lead to an increase of the spiral ordering wave vector and a reorientation away from the lattice-favored directions. The magnetic ordering pattern in this fluctuation-driven phase is found to be in excellent agreement with the neutron-scattering data in the partially ordered phase of MnSi.