Cooperative enhancement of superconducting correlations by electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions in the quarter-filled band

TL;DR

This study uses Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that in a quarter-filled band, electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions work together to enhance d-wave superconductivity, highlighting their cooperative role in strongly correlated systems.

Contribution

It reveals the cooperative enhancement of d-wave superconductivity by electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions specifically at quarter-filling, a novel insight into pairing mechanisms.

Findings

Electron-electron interaction U enhances pairing at quarter-filling.

Electron-phonon coupling cooperatively reinforces d-wave pairing at quarter-filling.

Competition between interactions occurs at other densities.

Abstract

We present the results of Quantum Monte Carlo calculations for a two dimensional frustrated Hubbard model coupled to bond phonons. The model is known to have a d-wave superconducting ground state in the limit of large phonon frequency for sufficiently strong electron-phonon coupling. In the absence of electron-phonon coupling the Hubbard interaction U enhances superconducting pairing in the quarter-filled (density $\rho$ = 0.5) band. We show here that at $\rho$ = 0.5 electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions cooperatively reinforce d-wave pairing, while competing with each other at all other densities. Cooperative degrees of freedom are found in many phase transitions and are essential to understanding superconductivity in strongly correlated materials.