We briefly overview the importance of Hubbard and Anderson-lattice models as applied to explanation of high-temperature and heavy-fermion superconductivity. Application of the models during the last two decades provided an explanation of the paired s
tates in correlated fermion systems and thus extended essentially their earlier usage to the description of itinerant magnetism, fluctuating valence, and the metal-insulator transition. In second part, we also present some of the new results concerning the unconventional superconductivity and obtained very recently in our group. A comparison with experiment is also discussed, but the main emphasis is put on rationalization of the superconducting properties of those materials within the real-space pairing mechanism based on either kinetic exchange and/or Kondo-type interaction combined with the electron correlation effects.
We discuss a detailed phase diagram and other microscopic characteristics on the applied magnetic field - temperature (H_a-T) plane for a simple model of correlated fluid represented by a two-dimensional (2D) gas of heavy quasiparticles with masses d
ependent on the spin direction and the effective field generated by the electron correlations. The consecutive transitions between the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phases are either continuous or discontinuous, depending on the values of H_a and T. In the latter case, weak metamagnetic transitions occur at the BCS-FFLO boundary. We single out two different FFLO phases, as well as a reentrant behaviour of one of them at high fields. The results are compared with those for ordinary Landau quasiparticles in order to demonstrate the robustness of the FFLO states against the BCS state for the case with spin-dependent masses (SDM). We believe that the mechanism of FFLO stabilization by SDM is generic: other high-field low-temperature (HFLT) superconducting phases benefit from SDM as well.
Paired state of nonstandard quasiparticles is analyzed in detail in two model situations. Namely, we consider the Cooper-pair bound state and the condensed phase of an almost localized Fermi liquid (ALFL) composed of quasiparticles in a narrow-band w
ith the spin-dependent masses (SDM) and an effective field, both introduced earlier and induced by strong electronic correlations. Each of these novel characteristics are calculated in a self-consistent manner. We analyze the bound states as a function of Cooper-pair momentum q in applied magnetic field in the strongly Pauli limiting case (i.e. when the orbital effects of applied magnetic field are disregarded). The spin-direction dependence of the effective mass makes the quasiparticles comprising Cooper pair spin distinguishable in the quantum mechanical sense, whereas the condensed gas of pairs may still be regarded as composed of identical entities. The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) condensed phase of moving pairs is by far more robust in the applied field for the case with spin-dependent masses than in the situation with equal masses of quasiparticles. Relative stability of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) vs. FFLO phase is analyzed in detail on temperature - applied field plane. Although our calculations are carried out for a model situation, we can conclude that the spin-dependent masses should play an important role in stabilizing high-field low-temperature (HFLT) unconventional superconducting phases (FFLO being an instance) in systems such as CeCoIn_5, organic metals, and possibly others.
We present a quantum critical behavior of the renormalized single-particle Wannier function, calculated in the Gutzwiller correlated state near the insulator-metal transition (IMT) for cubic lattices. The wave function size and its maximum, as well a
s the system energy scale with increasing lattice parameter $R$ as $R^{n}$. Such scaling is interpreted as the evidence of a dominant role of the Coulomb repulsion. Relation of the insulator-metal transition lattice-parameter value $R=R_{C}$ to the original {em Mott criterion} is obtained. The method is tested by comparing our results with the exact approach for the Hubbard chain.
The first observation of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconducting state and a subsequent detection of the spin-dependent effective masses of quasiparticles in the CeCoIn_5 heavy fermion system are combined into a single theoretical
framework. The appearance of the spin-split masses extends essentially the regime of temperatures and applied magnetic fields, in which FFLO is observable and thus is claimed to be very important for the FFLO detectability. We also stress that the quasiparticles composing Cooper pair become distinguishable in the nonzero field. The analysis is performed within the Kondo-lattice limit of the finite-U Anderson-lattice model containing both the mass renormalization and real-space pairing within a single scheme.
Spin dependence of quasiparticle mass has been observed recently in CeCoIn5 and other systems. It emerges from strong electronic correlations in a magnetically polarized state and was predicted earlier. Additionally, the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinni
kov (FFLO)phase has also been discovered in CeCoIn5 and therefore, the question arises as to what extent these two basic phenomena are interconnected, as it appears in theory. Here we show that the appearance of the spin-split masses essentially extends the regime of temperature and applied magnetic field, in which FFLO state is stable, and thus, it is claimed to be very important for the phase detectability. Furthermore, in the situation when the value of the spin z-component sigma differentiates masses of the particles, the fundamental question is to what extent the two mutually bound particles are indistinguishable quantum mechanically? By considering first the Cooper-pair state we show explicitly that the antisymmetry of the spin-pair wave function in the ground state may be broken when the magnetic field is applied.
