Dynamic Hubbard model: kinetic energy driven charge expulsion, charge inhomogeneity, hole superconductivity, and Meissner effect

TL;DR

Dynamic Hubbard models suggest that kinetic energy lowering causes charge expulsion and inhomogeneity, which may explain high-temperature superconductivity, charge asymmetry, and the Meissner effect in certain materials.

Contribution

This paper introduces the role of kinetic energy in charge expulsion and inhomogeneity within dynamic Hubbard models, linking these phenomena to high-temperature superconductivity and related effects.

Findings

Charge expulsion from interior to surface in finite systems.

Charge inhomogeneity correlates with high T_c superconductivity.

Spontaneous electric fields are predicted near superconductors.

Abstract

Dynamic Hubbard models describe the fact that the wavefunction of an electron in an atomic orbital expands when a second electron occupies the orbital. These models give rise to superconductivity driven by lowering of kinetic energy when the electronic energy band is almost full, with higher transition temperatures resulting when the ions are negatively charged. We show that the charge distribution in dynamic Hubbard models can be highly inhomogeneous in the presence of disorder, and that a finite system will expel {\it negative charge} from the interior to the surface, and that these tendencies are largest in the parameter regime where the models give rise to highest superconducting transition temperatures. High $T_c$ cuprate materials exhibit charge inhomogeneity and they exhibit tunneling asymmetry, a larger tendency to emit electrons rather than holes in NIS tunnel junctions. We propose that these properties, as well as their high $T_c$'s, are evidence that they are governed by the physics described by dynamic Hubbard models. Below the superconducting transition temperature the models considered here describe a negatively charged superfluid and positively charged quasiparticles, unlike the situation in conventional BCS superconductors where quasiparticles are charge neutral on average. We examine the temperature dependence of the superfluid and quasiparticle charges and conclude that spontaneous electric fields should be observable in the interior and in the vicinity of superconducting materials described by these models at sufficiently low temperatures. We furthermore suggest that the dynamics of the negatively charged superfluid and positively charged quasiparticles in dynamic Hubbard models can provide an explanation for the Meissner effect observed in superconducting materials.