Rigorous symmetry adaptation of multiorbital rotationally invariant slave-boson theory with application to Hund's rules physics

TL;DR

This paper develops a symmetry-adapted extension of the rotational-invariant slave boson theory to efficiently handle multi-orbital Hubbard models, revealing detailed Hund's physics and effects of spin-orbit coupling in complex materials.

Contribution

It introduces a symmetry-adapted RISB approach capable of treating multi-orbital systems with full atomic-shell manifolds, enabling detailed study of Hund's physics and spin-orbit effects.

Findings

Enhanced correlation effects in five-orbital systems.

Spin-orbit interaction reduces critical interaction strength.

Subtle orbital interplay in Fe chalcogenides.

Abstract

The theory of correlated electron systems on a lattice proves notoriously complicated because of the exponential growth of Hilbert space. Mean-field approaches provide valuable insight when the self-energy has a dominant local structure. Additionally, the extraction of effective low-energy theories from the generalized many-body representation is highly desirable. In this respect, the rotational-invariant slave boson (RISB) approach in its mean-field formulation enables versatile access to correlated lattice problems. However in its original form, due to numerical complexity, the RISB approach is limited to about three correlated orbitals per lattice site. We thus present a thorough symmetry-adapted advancement of RISB theory, suited to efficiently deal with multi-orbital Hubbard Hamiltonians for complete atomic-shell manifolds. It is utilized to study the intriguing problem of Hund's physics for three- and especially five-orbital manifolds on the correlated lattice, including crystal-field terms as well as spin-orbit interaction. The well-known Janus-face phenomenology, i.e. strenghtening of correlations at smaller-to-intermediate Hubbard $U$ accompanied by a shift of the Mott transition to a larger $U$ value, has a stronger signature and more involved multiplet resolution for five-orbital problems. Spin-orbit interaction effectively reduces the critical local interaction strength and weakens the Janus-face behavior. Application to the realistic challenge of Fe chalcogenides underlines the subtle interplay of the orbital degrees of freedom in these materials