arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Dieter Vollhardt.
A pedagogical introduction to solving classical and quantum many-body models in infinite spatial dimensions is given. The solution of the Hubbard model obtained in this limit is discussed in detail. It corresponds to a dynamical mean-field theory, which allows to compute the properties of correlated electrons in models and materials.
Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT) has opened new perspectives for the investigation of strongly correlated electron systems and greatly improved our understanding of correlation effects in models and materials. In contrast to Hartree-Fock-type approximations the mean field of DMFT is dynamical, whereby local quantum fluctuations are fully taken into account. DMFT becomes exact in the limit of high spatial dimensions or coordination number. Using DMFT the dynamics of correlated electron systems can be investigated non-perturbatively at all interaction strengths, electron densities and temperatures. By merging density functional theory with DMFT a powerful method for the calculation of the properties of correlated electron materials has become available, which is applicable to bulk systems and heterostructures, including topological states of matter. The inclusion of non-local correlations into DMFT makes it possible to explore unconventional superconductivity and the critical behavior at thermal or quantum phase transitions. By generalizing DMFT to non-equilibrium states also the real-time dynamics of correlated systems can be investigated. In this brief review the foundations and current status of DMFT are discussed along with characteristic physical insights obtained with this approach.
The electronic structure of vanadium measured by Angular Correlation of electron-positron Annihilation Radiation (ACAR) is compared with the predictions of the combined Density Functional and Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT). Reconstructing the momentum density from five 2D projections we were able to determine the full Fermi surface and found excellent agreement with the DMFT calculations. In particular, we show that the local, dynamic self-energy corrections contribute to the anisotropy of the momentum density and need to be included to explain the experimental results.
We calculate the momentum dependent spectral function of the Bose-Hubbard model on a simple cubic lattice in three dimensions within the bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (B-DMFT). The continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method is used to solve the self-consistent B-DMFT equations together with the maximum entropy method for the analytic continuation to real frequencies. Results for weak, intermediate, and strong interactions are presented. In the limit of weak and strong interactions very good agreement with results obtained by perturbation theory is found. By contrast, at intermediate interactions the results differ significantly, indicating that in this regime perturbative methods fail do describe the dynamics of interacting bosons.
The two-photon momentum distribution of annihilating electron-positron pairs in ferromagnetic nickel (Ni) was determined by measuring the spin-polarized two-dimensional angular correlation of annihilation radiation (ACAR). The spectra were compared with theoretical results obtained within LDA+DMFT, a combination of the local density approximation (LDA) and the many-body dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The self-energy describing the electronic correlations in Ni is found to make important anisotropic contributions to the momentum distribution which are not present in LDA. Based on a detailed comparison of the theoretical and experimental results the strength of the local electronic interaction U in ferromagnetic Ni is determined as 2.0 +- 0.1 eV.
To explore the nature of the metallic state near the transition to a Mott insulator we investigate the t-J model with random exchange interaction in d=infinity dimensions. A numerically exact solution is obtained by an extension of the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) method to the case of a vector bosonic field coupled to a local spin. We show that the paramagnetic solution near the Mott insulator describes an incoherent metal with a residual moment, and that single-particle excitations produce an additional band, which is separated from the Mott-Hubbard band.
We calculate the spectra and spin susceptibilities of a Hubbard model with two bands having different bandwidths but the same on-site interaction, with parameters close to the orbital-selective Mott transition, using dynamical mean-field theory. If the Hund's rule coupling is sufficiently strong, one common energy scale emerges which characterizes both the location of kinks in the self-energy and extrema of the diagonal spin susceptibilities. A physical explanation of this energy scale is derived from a Kondo-type model. We infer that for multi-band systems local spin dynamics rather than spectral functions determine the location of kinks in the effective band structure.
We derive an approximate analytical solution of the self-consistency equations of the bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (B-DMFT) in the strong-coupling limit. The approach is based on a linked-cluster expansion in the hybridization function of normal bosons around the atomic limit. The solution is used to compute the phase diagram of the bosonic Hubbard model for different lattices. We compare our results with numerical solutions of the B-DMFT equations and numerically exact methods, respectively. The very good agreement with those numerical results demonstrates that our approach captures the essential physics of correlated bosons both in the Mott insulator and in the superfluid phase. Close to the transition into the superfluid phase the momentum distribution function at zero momentum is found to be strongly enhanced already in the normal phase. The linked-cluster expansion also allows us to compute dynamical properties such as the spectral function of bosons. The evolution of the spectral function across the transition from the normal to the superfluid phase is seen to be characteristically different for the interaction driven and density driven transition, respectively.
We compute the magnetic susceptibilities of interacting electrons in the presence of disorder on a two-dimensional square lattice by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Clear evidence is found that at sufficiently low temperatures disorder can lead to an enhancement of the ferromagnetic susceptibility. We show that it is not related to the transition from a metal to an Anderson insulator in two dimensions, but is a rather general low temperature property of interacting, disordered electronic systems.
The dc-conductivity of electrons on a square lattice interacting with a local repulsion in the presence of disorder is computed by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We provide evidence for the existence of a transition from an Anderson insulator to a correlated disordered metal with a universal value of the critical dc-conductivity σ_{dc,crit} = (1.18 \pm 0.06) e^{2}/h at the transition.
The concept of electronic correlations plays an important role in modern condensed matter physics. It refers to interaction effects which cannot be explained within a static mean-field picture as provided by Hartree-Fock theory. Electronic correlations can have a very strong influence on the properties of materials. For example, they may turn a metal into an insulator (Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition). In these lecture notes I (i) introduce basic notions of the physics of correlated electronic systems, (ii) discuss the construction of mean-field theories by taking the limit of high lattice dimensions, (iii) explain the simplifications of the many-body perturbation theory in this limit which provide the basis for the formulation of a comprehensive mean-field theory for correlated fermions, the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT), (v) derive the DMFT self-consistency equations, and (vi) apply the DMFT to investigate electronic correlations in models and materials.
Employing a rigorous theoretical method for the construction of exact many-electron ground states we prove that interactions can be employed to tune a bare dispersive band structure such that it develops a flat band. Thereby we show that pentagon chain polymers with electron densities above half filling may be designed to become ferromagnetic or half metallic.
Numerical approaches to Anderson localization face the problem of having to treat large localization lengths while being restricted to finite system sizes. We show that by finite-size scaling of the probability distribution of the local density of states (LDOS) this long-standing problem can be overcome. To this end we reexamine the approach, propose numerical refinements, and apply it to study the dependence of the distribution of the LDOS on the dimensionality and coordination number of the lattice. Particular attention is given to the graphene lattice. We show that the system-size dependence of the LDOS distribution is indeed an unambiguous sign of Anderson localization, irrespective of the dimension and lattice structure. The numerically exact LDOS data obtained by us agree with a log-normal distribution over up to ten orders of magnitude and thereby fulfill a nontrivial symmetry relation previously derived for the non-linear $σ$-model.
We present the results of numerical studies for selected materials with strongly correlated electrons using a combination of the local-density approximation and dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). For the solution of the DMFT equations a continuous-time quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm was employed. All simulations were performed on the supercomputer HLRB II at the Leibniz Rechenzentrum in Munich. Specifically we have analyzed the pressure induced metal-insulator transitions in Fe2O3 and NiS2, the charge susceptibility of the fluctuating-valence elemental metal Yb, and the spectral properties of a covalent band-insulator model which includes local electronic correlations.
We derive a dynamical mean-field theory for mixtures of interacting bosons and fermions on a lattice (BF-DMFT). The BF-DMFT is a comprehensive, thermodynamically consistent framework for the theoretical investigation of Bose-Fermi mixtures and is applicable for arbitrary values of the coupling parameters and temperatures. It becomes exact in the limit of high spatial dimensions d or coordination number Z of the lattice. In particular, the BF-DMFT treats normal and condensed bosons on equal footing and thus includes the effects caused by their dynamic coupling. Using the BF-DMFT we investigate two different interaction models of correlated lattice bosons and fermions, one where all particles are spinless (model I) and one where fermions carry a spin one-half (model II). In model I the local, repulsive interaction between bosons and fermions can give rise to an attractive effective interaction between the bosons. In model II it can also lead to an attraction between the fermions.
We investigate the influence of degeneracies of the conduction band and the $f$-orbital on the stability of ferromagnetism in the periodic Anderson model. To this end we calculate the temperature dependence of the inverse susceptibility for different degeneracies $D^c, D^f$ and conduction electron densities $n^c$ within the dynamical mean-field theory. A strong increase of the Curie temperature $T_c$ with the degeneracy $D^f$ of the localized $f$-level is found. For $D^c \leq D^f$ a simple \emph{ansatz} based on a mean-field treatment of the RKKY interaction is shown to imply a scaling behavior of $T_c$ as a function of the conduction electron density per band which is well obeyed by the numerical results. In particular, $T_c$ is found to have a maximum at $n^c / D^c\approx 0.3$.
The magnetic ground state phase diagram of the disordered Hubbard model at half-filling is computed in dynamical mean-field theory supplemented with the spin resolved, typical local density of states. The competition between many-body correlations and disorder is found to stabilize paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic metallic phases at weak interactions. Strong disorder leads to Anderson localization of the electrons and suppresses the antiferromagnetic long-range order. Slater and Heisenberg antiferromagnets respond characteristically different to disorder. The results can be tested with cold fermionic atoms loaded into optical lattices.
We construct exact ground states of interacting electrons on triangle and diamond Hubbard chains. The construction requires (i) a rewriting of the Hamiltonian into positive semidefinite form, (ii) the construction of a many-electron ground state of this Hamiltonian, and (iii) the proof of the uniqueness of the ground state. This approach works in any dimension, requires no integrability of the model, and only demands sufficiently many microscopic parameters in the Hamiltonian which have to fulfill certain relations. The scheme is first employed to construct exact ground state for the diamond Hubbard chain in a magnetic field. These ground states are found to exhibit a wide range of properties such as flat-band ferromagnetism and correlation induced metallic, half-metallic or insulating behavior, which can be tuned by changing the magnetic flux, local potentials, or electron density. Detailed proofs of the uniqueness of the ground states are presented. By the same technique exact ground states are constructed for triangle Hubbard chains and a one-dimensional periodic Anderson model with nearest-neighbor hybridization. They permit direct comparison with results obtained by variational techniques for f-electron ferromagnetism due to a flat band in CeRh3B2.