Spectral functions across an Insulator to Superconductor Transition

TL;DR

This paper uses quantum Monte Carlo to study spectral functions across an insulator to superconductor transition in a two-band model, revealing diverse pairing behaviors and phases including BCS, BEC, and band-selective states.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed QMC analysis of spectral functions and phases in a minimal two-band model with attractive interactions, highlighting novel band-dependent pairing phenomena.

Findings

Identification of Fermi and Bose insulating phases with incipient pairing signatures.

Observation of three distinct spectral behaviors in the superconducting state: BCS, BEC, and band-selective.

Discovery of a Mott phase of rung bosons with half the typical Mott insulator density.

Abstract

In a minimal 2-band model with attractive interactions between fermions, we calculate the gap to single and two-particle excitations, the band-dependent spectral functions, the superfluid density and compressibility using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. We find Fermi and Bose insulating phases with signatures of incipient pairing evident in the single-particle spectral functions, and a superconducting state with three different spectral functions: (i) both bands show "BCS" behavior in which the minimum gap locus occurs on a closed contour on the underlying Fermi surface; (ii) both bands show "BEC" behavior in which the minimum gap occurs at a point; and (iii) band selective spectral characteristics, in which one band shows "BCS" while the other shows "BEC" behavior. At large interactions, we find a Mott phase of rung bosons in which the filling is one boson for every two sites, half the typical density constraint for Mott insulators.