No Arabic abstract
A combined analytical and numerical study is performed of the mapping between strongly interacting fermions and weakly interacting spins, in the framework of the Hubbard, t-J and Heisenberg models. While for spatially homogeneous models in the thermodynamic limit the mapping is thoroughly understood, we here focus on aspects that become relevant in spatially inhomogeneous situations, such as the effect of boundaries, impurities, superlattices and interfaces. We consider parameter regimes that are relevant for traditional applications of these models, such as electrons in cuprates and manganites, and for more recent applications to atoms in optical lattices. The rate of the mapping as a function of the interaction strength is determined from the Bethe-Ansatz for infinite systems and from numerical diagonalization for finite systems. We show analytically that if translational symmetry is broken through the presence of impurities, the mapping persists and is, in a certain sense, as local as possible, provided the spin-spin interaction between two sites of the Heisenberg model is calculated from the harmonic mean of the onsite Coulomb interaction on adjacent sites of the Hubbard model. Numerical calculations corroborate these findings also in interfaces and superlattices, where analytical calculations are more complicated.
The properties of mobile impurities in quantum magnets are fundamental for our understanding of strongly correlated materials and may play a key role in the physics of high-temperature superconductivity. Hereby, the motion of hole-like defects through an antiferromagnet has been of particular importance. It creates magnetic frustrations that lead to the formation of a quasiparticle, whose complex structure continues to pose substantial challenges to theory and numerical simulations. In this article, we develop a non-perturbative theoretical approach to describe the microscopic properties of such magnetic polarons. Based on the self-consistent Born approximation, which is provenly accurate in the strong-coupling regime, we obtain a complete description of the polaron wave function by solving a set of Dyson-like equations that permit to compute relevant spin-hole correlation functions. We apply this new method to analyze the spatial structure of magnetic polarons in the strongly interacting regime and find qualitative differences from predictions of previously applied truncation schemes. Our calculations reveal a remarkably high spatial symmetry of the polaronic magnetization cloud and a surprising misalignment between its orientation and the polaron crystal momentum. The developed framework opens up a new approach to the microscopic properties of doped quantum magnets and will enable detailed analyses of ongoing experiments based on cold-atom quantum simulations of the Fermi-Hubbard model.
We investigate the effects of weak to moderate disorder on the T=0 Mott metal-insulator transition in two dimensions. Our model calculations demonstrate that the electronic states close to the Fermi energy become more spatially homogeneous in the critical region. Remarkably, the higher energy states show the opposite behavior: they display enhanced spatial inhomogeneity precisely in the close vicinity to the Mott transition. We suggest that such energy-resolved disorder screening is a generic property of disordered Mott systems.
Applying a unified approach, we study integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) and fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) in the Hofstadter model with short range interaction between fermions. An effective field, that takes into account the interaction, is determined by both the amplitude and phase. Its amplitude is proportional to the interaction strength, the phase corresponds to the minimum energy. In fact the problem is reduced to the Harper equation with two different scales: the first is a magnetic scale (cell size corresponding to a unit quantum magnetic flux), the second scale (determines the inhomogeneity of the effective field) forms the steady fine structure of the Hofstadter spectrum and leads to the realization of fractional quantum Hall states. In a sample of finite sizes with open boundary conditions, the fine structure of the Hofstadter spectrum also includes the fine structure of the edge chiral modes. The subbands in a fine structure of the Hofstadter band (HB) are separated extremely small quasigaps. The Chern number of a topological HB is conserved during the formation of its fine structure. Edge modes are formed into HB, they connect the nearest-neighbor subbands and determine the fractional conductance for the fractional filling at the Fermi energies corresponding to these quasigaps.
We study the (de)localization phenomena of one-component lattice fermions in spin backgrounds. The O(3) classical spin variables on sites fluctuate thermally through the ordinary nearest-neighbor coupling. Their complex two-component (CP$^1$-Schwinger boson) representation forms a composite U(1) gauge field on bond, which acts on fermions as a fluctuating hopping amplitude in a gauge invariant manner. For the case of antiferromagnetic (AF) spin coupling, the model has close relationship with the $t$-$J$ model of strongly-correlated electron systems. We measure the unfolded level spacing distribution of fermion energy eigenvalues and the participation ratio of energy eigenstates. The results for AF spin couplings suggest a possibility that, in two dimensions, all the energy eigenstates are localized. In three dimensions, we find that there exists a mobility edge, and estimate the critical temperature $T_{ss LD}(delta)$ of the localization-delocalization transition at the fermion concentration $delta$.
We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of the Kondo effect in a series of binuclear metal-organic complexes of the form [(Me(hfacac)_2)_2(bpym)]^0, with Me = Nickel (II), Manganese(II), Zinc (II); hfacac = hexafluoroacetylacetonate, and bpym = bipyrimidine, adsorbed on Cu(100) surface. While Kondo-features did not appear in the scanning tunneling spectroscopy spectra of non-magnetic Zn_2, a zero bias resonance was resolved in magnetic Mn_2 and Ni_2 complexes. The case of Ni_2 is particularly interesting as the experiments indicate two adsorption geometries with very different properties. For Ni_2-complexes we have employed density functional theory to further elucidate the situation. Our simulations show that one geometry with relatively large Kondo temperatures T_K ~ 10K can be attributed to distorted Ni_2 complexes, which are chemically bound to the surface via the bipyrimidine unit. The second geometry, we assign to molecular fragmentation: we suggest that the original binuclear molecule decomposes into two pieces, including Ni(hexafluoroacetylacetonate)_2, when brought into contact with the Cu-substrate. For both geometries our calculations support a picture of the (S=1)-type Kondo effect emerging due to open 3d shells of the individual Ni^{2+} ions.