The Full Mottness

TL;DR

This paper investigates the intrinsic strongly correlated physics of doped Mott insulators using a 2D Hubbard model, revealing pseudogap formation, Fermi surface anomalies, and Hall coefficient sign changes linked to Mott physics.

Contribution

It introduces a non-perturbative, local physics-based approach with a two-site dynamical cluster expansion to analyze doping effects in the Hubbard model.

Findings

Spectral gap of order U at half-filling without quasiparticles

Fermi surface exceeds Luttinger volume upon doping

Pseudogap opens in underdoped regime and closes above optimal doping

Abstract

Though most fermionic Mott insulators order at low temperatures, ordering is ancillary to their insulating behaviour. Our emphasis here is on disentangling ordering from the intrinsic strongly correlated physics of a doped half-filled band. To this end, we focus on the 2D Hubbard model. Because the charge gap arises from on-site correlations, we implement a non-perturbative approach which incorporates local physics. Crucial to this method is a self-consistent two-site dynamical cluster expansion which builds in the nearest-neighbour energy scale, $J$. At half-filling, we find that the spectral function possesses a gap of order $U$ and is devoid of any coherent quasi-particle peaks. In the doped case, we find that the Fermi surface exceeds the Luttinger volume. Additionally in the underdoped regime, we find that a pseudogap opens in the single particle density of states.The pseudogap closes above optimal doping and hence our proposal is not inconsistent with that of Loram. In analogy with the Mott gap and antiferromagnetism, we propose that ordering may also accompany the formation of a pseudogap. We suggest a current pattern within a 1-band model that preserves translational but breaks time-reversal symmetry along the canonical x and y axes but not along $x=\pm y$ that is consistent with the experimental observations. Finally, we show that the Hall coefficient in a doped Mott insulator must change sign at a doping level $x<1/3$. The sign change is tied to a termination of strong correlation physics in the doped Mott state.