On Degeneracies of Density, Magnetic, and Pairing Responses: How Competing Orders Echo Underlying Symmetries in the Hubbard Model

Abstract

Strongly correlated electron systems often display competing or even intertwined ordering tendencies, hinting to extremely close or degenerate many-electron energies. While degeneracies are directly rooted in the underlying symmetries of the problem under investigation, their multifaceted effects on different response functions and their mutual relations often remain elusive. Here we put this subject on a rigorous basis by investigating the degeneracies of charge, spin, and pairing susceptibilities for the unfrustrated, bipartite Hubbard model. Exploiting its pseudospin symmetry, we analytically derive the mutual relations between these response functions for generic spatial modulations, highly relevant, e.g., for the competition of stripe and superconducting orders. By means of two-particle numerical simulations we demonstrate the occurrence of a simultaneous $d$-wave pairing/$d$-density wave (loop current) instability in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition, driven by short-ranged spin fluctuations for the two-dimensional case. We show how this degeneracy is gradually lifted by geometrical frustration, which favors superconductivity. Our study provides a general tool for revealing symmetry relations in correlated electron systems and establishes a unifying perspective on the nature of their intermingled charge/loop current, pairing, and spin orders.