No Arabic abstract
Utilizing the unbiased time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group technique, we examine the photoemission spectra in the extended Falicov-Kimball model at zero and finite temperatures, particularly with regard to the excitonic insulator state most likely observed in the quasi-one-dimensional material Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$. Working with infinite boundary conditions, we are able to simulate all dynamical correlation functions directly in the thermodynamic limit. For model parameters best suited for Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ the photoemission spectra show a weak but clearly visible two-peak structure, around the Fermi momenta $ksimeqpm k_{rm F}$, which suggests that Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ develops an excitonic insulator of BCS-like type. At higher temperatures, the leakage of the conduction-electron band beyond the Fermi energy becomes distinct, which provides a possible explanation for the bare non-interacting band structure seen in time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments.
The three-chain Hubbard model for Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ known as a candidate material for the excitonic insulator is investigated over the wide range of energy gap $D$ between the two-fold degenerate conduction bands and the nondegenerate valence band including both semiconducting ($D>0$) and semimetallic ($D<0$) cases. In the semimetallic case, the difference of the band degeneracy inevitably causes the imbalance of each Fermi wavenumber, resulting in a remarkable excitonic state characterized by the condensation of excitons with finite center-of-mass momentum $q$, the so-called Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) excitonic state. With decreasing $D$ corresponding to increasing pressure, the obtained excitonic phase diagram shows a crossover from BEC ($Dsimg 0$) to BCS ($Dsiml 0$) regime, and then shows a distinct phase transition at a certain critical value $D_c(<0)$ from the uniform ($q=0$) to the FFLO ($q e 0$) excitonic state, as expected to be observed in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ under high pressure.
We study the electron-hole pair (or excitonic) condensation in the extended Falicov-Kimball model at finite temperatures based on the cluster mean-field-theory approach, where we make the grand canonical exact-diagonalization analysis of small clusters using the sine-square deformation function. We thus calculate the ground-state and finite-temperature phase diagrams of the model, as well as its optical conductivity and single-particle spectra, thereby clarifying how the preformed pair states appear in the strong-coupling regime of excitonic insulators. We compare our results with experiment on Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$.
Using exact numerical techniques we investigate the nature of excitonic (electron-hole) bound states and the development of exciton coherence in the one-dimensional half-filled extended Falicov-Kimball model. The ground-state phase diagram of the model exhibits, besides band insulator and staggered orbital ordered phases, an excitonic insulator (EI) with power-law correlations. The criticality of the EI state shows up in the von Neumann entropy. The anomalous spectral function and condensation amplitude provide the binding energy and coherence length of the electron-hole pairs which, on their part, point towards a Coulomb interaction driven crossover from BCS-like electron-hole pairing fluctuations to tightly bound excitons. We show that while a mass imbalance between electrons and holes does not affect the location of the BCS-BEC crossover regime it favors staggered orbital ordering to the disadvantage of the EI. Within the BEC regime the quasiparticle dispersion develops a flat valence-band top in accord with the experimental finding for Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$.
The microscopic quantum interference associated with excitonic condensation in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ is studied in the BCS-type mean-field approximation. We show that in ultrasonic attenuation the coherence peak appears just below the transition temperature $T_{rm c}$ whereas in NMR spin-lattice relaxation the rate rapidly decreases below $T_{rm c}$; these observations can offer a crucial experimental test for the validity of the excitonic condensation scenario in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$. We also show that the excitonic condensation manifests itself in a jump of the heat capacity at $T_{rm c}$ as well as in softening of the elastic shear constant, in accordance with the second-order phase transition observed in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$.
In this work, we study the extended Falicov-Kimball model at half-filling within the Hartree-Fock approach (HFA) (for various crystal lattices) and compare the results obtained with the rigorous ones derived within the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The model describes a system, where electrons with spin-$downarrow$ are itinerant (with hopping amplitude $t$), whereas those with spin-$uparrow$ are localized. The particles interact via on-site $U$ and intersite $V$ density-density Coulomb interactions. We show that the HFA description of the ground state properties of the model is equivalent to the exact DMFT solution and provides a qualitatively correct picture also for a range of small temperatures. It does capture the discontinuous transition between ordered phases at $U=2V$ for small temperatures as well as correct features of the continuous order-disorder transition. However, the HFA predicts that the discontinuous boundary ends at the isolated-critical point (of the liquid-gas type) and it does not merge with the continuous boundary. This approach cannot also describe properly a change of order of the continuous transition for large $V$ as well as various metal-insulator transitions found within the DMFT.