We investigate the ground state of two-dimensional Hubbard model on the basis of the variational Monte Carlo method. We use wave functions that include kinetic correlation and doublon-holon correlation beyond the Gutzwiller ansatz. It is still not clear whether the Hubbard model accounts for high-temperature superconductivity. The antiferromagnetic correlation plays a key role in the study of pairing mechanism because the superconductive phase exists usually close to the antiferromagnetic phase. We investigate the stability of the antiferromagnetic state when holes are doped as a function of the Coulomb repulsion U. We show that the antiferromagnetic correlation is suppressed as U is increased exceeding the bandwidth. High-temperature superconductivity is possible in this region with enhanced antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation and pairing interaction.
1. Introduction
The study of high-temperature superconductivity has attracted much attention since the discovery of cuprate high-temperature superconductors [1]. It is very important to clarify the properties of electronic states in the CuO2 plane [2–9]. The model for the CuO2 plane is called the d-p model (or is called the three-band Hubbard model). We often consider the simplified model, by neglecting oxygen sites in the CuO2 plane, called the (single-band) Hubbard model [10–15].
It remains unresolved as to whether the two-dimensional Hubbard model has a superconducting phase or not [16, 17]. It is believed that the electron correlation between electrons plays a significant role in cuprate superconductors. It is obvious that interaction with large energy scale is responsible for realization of high-temperature superconductivity. This subject has been investigated for more than two decades by using electronic models such as the two-dimensional Hubbard model, the d-p model, and the ladder Hubbard model [18–21].
The antiferromagnetic (AF) correlation plays a primarily important role in correlated electron systems. For example, the existence of striped states [22–29] can be understood on the basis of the two-dimensional Hubbard model [9, 30, 31]. The checkerboard-like density-wave modulation, observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [32–34], is also possible in some region of the parameter space in the Hubbard model [31]. The possibility of the coexistent state of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity has been reported [35, 36], and we can show the coexistence using the Hubbard model [9]. Thus the two-dimensional Hubbard model can describe some of anomalous properties reported for cuprate superconductors. The spin fluctuation, which is one of candidates of attractive interaction for high-temperature superconductivity, comes from the antiferromagnetic spin correlation. It is thus important to examine the stability of the antiferromagnetic state.
In the mean-field theory the antiferromagnetic correlation is enhanced as U is increased. This is also the case for the wave function of simple Gutzwiller ansatz. When we consider electron correlation beyond the Gutzwiller ansatz (mean-field wave function), the nature of the antiferromagnetism changes in the strongly correlated region where U is larger than the bandwidth. The AF correlation is increased as U is increased from zero and is maximally enhanced when U is about the bandwidth. The AF correlation shows a tendency to be suppressed when U is further increased more than the bandwidth. This is because we must suppress AF correlation to get the kinetic energy gain to lower the ground state energy. This indicates that the spin fluctuation becomes large in the large-U region.
In this paper we investigate the stability of AF ordered state using the wave functions that take account of kinetic correlation and doublon-holon correlation. We show the results obtained by the variational Monte Carlo method.
2. Model and Wave Functions
The Hubbard Hamiltonian is written as (1)H=∑ijσtijciσ†cjσ+U∑ini↑ni↓,where {tij} are transfer integrals and U is the on-site Coulomb energy. The transfer integral tij for nearest-neighbor pairs ij is denoted as tij=-t and that for next-nearest-neighbor pair ij is tij=-t′. Otherwise, tij vanishes. We denote the number of sites as N and the number of electrons as Ne. The energy unit is given by t.
The simple wave function is given by the Gutzwiller function: (2)ψG=PGψ0,where PG is the Gutzwiller operator (3)PG=∏j1-1-gnj↑nj↓with the parameter g in the range of 0≤g≤1. ψ0 is a trial function of the noninteracting state. To investigate the superconducting state, we use the BCS wave function ψBCS for ψ0 with the gap parameter Δ. The condensation energy is defined as (4)Econd=EΔ=0-EΔ=Δoptfor the optimized gap function Δopt.
We take into account intersite correlation effects in the wave function by multiplying a correlation operator e-λK: (5)ψλ=e-λKψG,where K indicates the kinetic term of the Hamiltonian K=∑ijσtijciσ†cjσ and λ is a real constant which is the variational parameter to be optimized [37–39]. This wave function is a first approximation to the wave function used in quantum Monte Carlo method [40].
The other way to improve the wave function is to consider the doublon-holon correlation that is controlled by the operator given by [41] (6)Pdh=∏j1-1-η∏τdj1-ej+τ+ej1-dj+τ.dj is the operator for the doubly occupied site given as dj=nj↑nj↓ and ej is that for the empty site given by ej=(1-nj↑)(1-nj↓). η is the variational parameter in the range of 0≤η≤1. The doublon-holon wave function is written as (7)ψη=PdhψG.We evaluate physical quantities for the Gutzwiller function ψG and optimized wave functions ψλ and ψη using the variational Monte Carlo method [42, 43].
3. Antiferromagnetism and Superconductivity
We first show the superconducting condensation energy and optimized superconducting gap function Δ as a function of U in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. These results were obtained by using the Gutzwiller function with a BCS trial function. The results show that Δ increases as U is increased and will have a maximum at some U. This indicates that the superconducting state becomes more stable in the strongly correlated region for larger U. The region with U being greater than the bandwidth is called the strongly correlated region [41, 44]. It is difficult to observe a clear sign of superconductivity in weakly correlated region; for example, U is less than 6t, by numerical calculations. This is consistent with the results obtained by quantum Monte Carlo methods [17, 39, 45].
Superconducting condensation energy as a function of U for the Gutzwiller function. The system is 10×10 lattice with t′=-0.2 and the electron number is Ne=84. We impose the periodic boundary condition in one direction and antiperiodic boundary condition in the other direction.
Optimized superconducting gap function as a function of U for the BCS Gutzwiller function. The conditions are the same as in Figure 1.
This result suggests that there is some effect which induces an attractive interaction to form electron pairings in strongly correlated region. We examine the stability of AF ordered state in this region. For this purpose we employ the kinetic correlation function ψλ=e-λKψG and the doublon-holon correlation function ψη=PdhψG. We compare the ground state energy for ψG, ψη, and ψλ in Table 1. Among these wave functions, ψλ shows the lowest ground state energy. This indicates that the intersite correlation induced by the kinetic operator K is important in the correlated region. In Figure 3 we show the kinetic energy which is the expectation value of the kinetic term as well as the ground state energy as a function of λ for ψλ. The kinetic energy is lowered appreciably by the kinetic correlation operator e-λK.
Ground state energy per site for wave functions ψG, doublon-holon function ψη and ψλ. The parameters are Ne=86, U=10, t′=-0.2 on 10×10 lattice with periodic boundary conditions. ΔAF is the antiferromagnetic order parameter.
Wave function
E/N
g
ΔAF
η
λ
ψG
−0.5859
0.21
0.0
1.0
0
ψG(AF)
−0.5953
0.21
0.2
1.0
0
ψη=PdhψG
−0.6179
0.21
0.0
0.78
0
ψλ=e-λKψG
−0.6643
0.06
0.0
1.0
0.06
Ground state energy (circles) and the kinetic energy (squares) as a function of λ, evaluated using ψλ. The parameters are U=10, t′=-0.2, and Ne=100.
When U is large, there is a competition between antiferromagnetic energy gain and kinetic energy gain to lower the total energy. The AF energy gain, being proportional to the AF exchange coupling J∝t2/U, is reduced gradually as U is increased. We show this in Figure 4 where the energy gain of the AF state with reference to the normal state is shown as a function of U. When U is increased more than the bandwidth, the antiferromagnetism is suppressed and its energy gain is decreased as U is increased. This indicates that there is a large AF spin fluctuation in this region. This shows a possibility of AF fluctuation induced electron pairing in the strongly correlated region.
Antiferromagnetic condensation energy as a function of U. The system is 10×10 lattice with t′=-0.2. The electron number is Ne=86 (lower curve) and Ne=84 (upper curve). In the latter Ne=84 case we have an open shell; that is, the highest occupied electron level is partially filled. We use the periodic boundary condition in both directions.
4. Summary
We have investigated the two-dimensional Hubbard model by adopting the wave function that takes into account intersite electron correlation using the variational Monte Carlo method. The condensation energy becomes large in the strongly correlated region, suggesting a possibility of high-temperature superconductivity. The reduction of antiferromagnetic correlation suggests large spin fluctuation in this region. We expect that this spin fluctuation in strongly correlated region induces an attractive interaction which promotes superconductivity. In the weakly correlated region for U/t less than about 6, there is also spin fluctuation because the AF order is suppressed as U is decreased. In numerical calculations, however, the pairing state is not stabilized in the weakly correlated region. This indicates that only the spin fluctuation effect cannot promote electron pairing and we further need strong correlation to account for high-temperature superconductivity.
It is also important to discuss the role of other parameters in the Hubbard model. In particular, the next-nearest-neighbor transfer t′ is important since the density of states crucially depends on t′ due to the van Hove singularity of a two-dimensional system. The nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V is also important. The on-site Coulomb interaction U is renormalized by V and V will change the nature of antiferromagnetic correlation.
It is necessary to consider three-dimensional electronic models because real cuprate superconductors are three-dimensional layered materials. It is important to investigate the electronic state of layered cuprates because an interlayer interaction may bring about interesting phenomena. They can be regarded as a multiband superconductor and have potential for new phenomena [46–52].
It is also necessary to examine the effect of strong correlation on the electron-phonon interaction [53–56]. There is a possibility that electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions cooperate to realize a high-temperature superconductor. The electron-phonon coupling may induce long-range attractive interaction. We expect that the long-range part of attractive interaction may cooperate with the on-site repulsive interaction to induce superconductivity.
Conflict of Interests
The author declares that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks K. Yamaji and M. Miyazaki for useful discussions. This work was supported in part by grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. A part of numerical calculations was performed at the Supercomputer Center of the Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo.
BennemannK. H.KettersonJ. B.2003Berlin, GermanySpringerEmeryV. J.Theory of high-Tc superconductivity in oxides19875826279410.1103/physrevlett.58.2794HirschJ. E.LohE.Jr.ScalapinoD. J.TangS.Pairing interaction in CuO clusters1989391, article 24310.1103/physrevb.39.2432-s2.0-0001432822ScalettarR. T.ScalapinoD. J.SugarR. L.WhiteS. R.Antiferromagnetic, charge-transfer, and pairing correlations in the three-band Hubbard model199144277078110.1103/PhysRevB.44.7702-s2.0-0000398684WeberC.LäuchliA.MilaF.GiamarchiT.Orbital currents in extended hubbard models of high-Tc cuprate superconductors2009102101700510.1103/physrevlett.102.017005LauB.BerciuM.SawatzkyG. A.High-spin polaron in lightly doped CuO2 planes2011106303640110.1103/physrevlett.106.036401YanagisawaT.KoikeS.YamajiK.Ground state of the three-band Hubbard model2001641818450910.1103/physrevb.64.184509YanagisawaT.MiyazakiM.KoikegamiS.KoikeS.YamajiK.Lattice distortions, incommensurability, and stripes in the electronic model for high-Tc cuprates2003671313240810.1103/physrevb.67.132408YanagisawaT.MiyazakiM.YamajiK.Incommensurate antiferromagnetism coexisting with superconductivity in two-dimensional d–p model200978101370610.1143/jpsj.78.013706HubbardJ.Electron correlations in narrow energy bands1963276136523825710.1098/rspa.1963.0204HirschJ. E.Two-dimensional Hubbard model: numerical simulation study19853174403441910.1103/physrevb.31.4403YokoyamaH.ShibaH.Variational Monte-Carlo studies of superconductivity in strongly correlated electron systems19885772482249310.1143/jpsj.57.2482YanagisawaT.ShimoiY.Exact results in strongly correlated electrons—spin-reflection positivity and the perron-frobenius theorem199610253383345010.1142/s0217979296001835YamajiK.YanagisawaT.KoikeS.Bulk limit of superconducting condensation energy in 2D Hubbard model2000284–288part 141541610.1016/S0921-4526(99)01983-3YanagisawaT.Kosterlitz–thouless transition in two-dimensional hubbard model evidenced from quantum monte carlo calculations of susceptibilities2010796406370810.1143/jpsj.79.063708BulutN.dx2-y2 superconductivity and the Hubbard model20025171587166710.1080/00018730210155142AimiT.ImadaM.Does simple two-dimensional hubbard model account for high-Tc superconductivity in copper oxides?2007761111370810.1143/jpsj.76.113708NoackR. M.BulutN.ScalapinoD. J.ZacherM. G.Enhanced dx2-y2 pairing correlations in the two-leg Hubbard ladder19975612, article 716210.1103/physrevb.56.71622-s2.0-0000937818KoikeS.YamajiK.YanagisawaT.Effect of the medium-range transfer energies to the superconductivity in the two-chain Hubbard model19996851657166310.1143/jpsj.68.16572-s2.0-0033437951YamajiK.ShimoiY.YanagisawaT.Superconductivity indications of the two-chain Hubbard model due to the two-band effect1994235–24042221222210.1016/0921-4534(94)92332-92-s2.0-0004428464YanagisawaT.ShimoiY.YamajiK.Superconducting phase of a two-chain Hubbard model1995526R3860R386310.1103/PhysRevB.52.R38602-s2.0-0041196869TranquadaJ. M.AxeJ. D.IchikawaN.NakamuraY.UchidaS.NachumiB.Neutron-scattering study of stripe-phase order of holes and spins in La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4199654107489749910.1103/physrevb.54.7489SuzukiT.GotoT.ChibaK.Observation of modulated magnetic long-range order in La1.88Sr0.12CuO41998576R322910.1103/physrevb.57.r3229YamadaK.LeeC. H.KurahashiK.Doping dependence of the spatially modulated dynamical spin correlations and the superconducting-transition temperature in La2−xSrxCuO4199857106165617210.1103/physrevb.57.6165AraiM.NishijimaT.EndohY.Incommensurate spin dynamics of underdoped superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.7199983360861110.1103/physrevlett.83.608MookH. A.DaiP.DoǧanF.HuntR. D.One-dimensional nature of the magnetic fluctuations in YBa2Cu3O6.62000404677972973110.1038/350080052-s2.0-0034643355WakimotoS.BirgeneauR. J.KastnerM. A.Direct observation of a one-dimensional static spin modulation in insulating La1.95Sr0.05Cuo4200061, article 369910.1103/physrevb.61.3699BianconiA.SainiN. L.LanzaraA.MissoriM.RossettiT.OyanagiH.YamaguchiH.OkaK.ItoT.Determination of the local lattice distortions in the CuO2 plane of La1.85Sr0.15CuO4199676183412341510.1103/physrevlett.76.3412BianconiA.Quantum materials: Shape resonances in superstripes20139953653710.1038/nphys27382-s2.0-84883732544MiyazakiM.YanagisawaT.YamajiK.Diagonal stripe states in the light-doping region in the two-dimensional Hubbard model20047371643164610.1143/JPSJ.73.16432-s2.0-20444365497MiyazakiM.YamajiK.YanagisawaT.KadonoR.Checkerboard states in the two-dimensional hubbard model with the Bi2212-type band2009784404370610.1143/jpsj.78.043706HoffmanJ. E.HudsonE. W.LangK. M.MadhavanV.EisakiH.UchidaS.DavisJ. C.A four unit cell periodic pattern of quasi-particle states surrounding Vortex cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ2002295555446646910.1126/science.1066974WiseW. D.BoyerM. C.ChatterjeeK.Charge-density-wave origin of cuprate checkerboard visualized by scanning tunnelling microscopy2008469669910.1038/nphys1021HanaguriT.LupienC.KohsakaY.LeeD.-H.AzumaM.TakanoM.TakagiH.DavisJ. C.A ‘checkerboard’ electronic crystal state in lightly hole-doped Ca2-xNaxCuO2Cl2200443070031001100510.1038/nature028612-s2.0-4344605135MukudaH.AbeM.ArakiY.Uniform mixing of high-Tc superconductivity and antiferromagnetism on a single CuO2 plane of a Hg-based five-layered cuprate200696808700110.1103/physrevlett.96.087001CrisanA.TanakaY.IyoA.Coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in HgBa2Ca4Cu5Oy: multiharmonic susceptibility and vortex dynamics study20077621421250810.1103/PhysRevB.76.212508YanagisawaT.KoikeS.YamajiK.Off-diagonal wave function monte carlo studies of hubbard nodel I199867113867387410.1143/jpsj.67.38672-s2.0-0001154619YanagisawaT.KoikeS.YamajiK.d-Wave state with multiplicative correlation factors for the Hubbard model199968113608361410.1143/jpsj.68.36082-s2.0-0033275633YanagisawaT.MiyazakiM.YamajiK.Correlated-electron systems and high-temperature superconductivity20134336410.4236/jmp.2013.46A008YanagisawaT.Enhanced pair correlation functions in the two-dimensional Hubbard model201315303301210.1088/1367-2630/15/3/033012YokoyamaH.OgataM.TanakaY.Mott transitions and d-wave superconductivity in half-filled Hubbard model on square lattice with geometric frustration2006751111470610.1143/JPSJ.75.114706NakanishiT.YamajiK.YanagisawaT.Variational Monte Carlo indications of d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model199766229429710.1143/jpsj.66.294YamajiK.YanagisawaT.NakanishiT.KoikeS.Variational Monte Carlo study on the superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model19983043-422523810.1016/s0921-4534(98)00283-42-s2.0-0032138805YanagisawaT.MiyazakiM.Mott transition in cuprate high-temperature superconductors201410722700410.1209/0295-5075/107/270042-s2.0-84904893670ZhangS.CarlsonJ.GubernatisJ. E.Constrained path Monte Carlo method for fermion ground states19975512, article 746410.1103/physrevb.55.74642-s2.0-0001003613TanakaY.IyoA.ItohS.TokiwaK.NishioT.YanagisawaT.Experimental observation of a possible first-order phase transition below the superconducting transition temperature in the multilayer cuprate superconductor HgBa2Ca4Cu5Oy201483707470510.7566/jpsj.83.074705StanevV.TesanovicZ.Three-band superconductivity and the order parameter that breaks time-reversal symmetry20108113452210.1103/physrevb.81.134522TanakaY.YanagisawaT.Chiral ground state in three-band superconductors2010791147062-s2.0-78651263901TanakaY.YanagisawaT.Chiral state in three-gap superconductors201015041-421980198210.1016/j.ssc.2010.08.0242-s2.0-77957277524YanagisawaT.TanakaY.HaseI.YamajiK.Vortices and chirality in multi-band superconductors201281202471210.1143/jpsj.81.024712YanagisawaT.HaseI.Massless modes and Abelian Gauge fields in multi-band superconductors2013821212470410.7566/jpsj.82.124704YerinY. S.OmelyanchoukA. N.Frustration phenomena in Josephson point contacts between single-band and three-band superconductors20144010, article 94310.1063/1.48974162-s2.0-84909974533KimJ. H.TešanovićZ.Effects of strong Coulomb correlations on the phonon-mediated superconductivity: a model inspired by Copper oxides199371254218422110.1103/physrevlett.71.4218KulićM. L.Importance of the electron-phonon interaction with the forward scattering peak for superconducting pairing in cuprates200619321324910.1007/s10948-006-0159-6SzczęśniakR.Pairing mechanism for the high-TC superconductivity: symmetries and thermodynamic properties201274e3187310.1371/journal.pone.0031873SzczesniakR.DurajskiA. P.Anisotropy of the gap parameter in the hole-doped cuprates2014271212500410.1088/0953-2048/27/12/125004