Variational description of Mott insulators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a variational approach combining Gutzwiller and Jastrow factors to accurately describe different phases of Mott insulators in a one-dimensional Hubbard model, capturing known phases and transitions.

Contribution

It presents a novel variational wave function that effectively describes Mott insulators with long-range correlations, improving upon previous methods.

Findings

Reproduces all known phases of the 1D Hubbard model at half filling.

Identifies the transition between different insulating and metallic phases.

Demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined Gutzwiller-Jastrow wave function.

Abstract

The Gutzwiller wave function for a strongly correlated model can, if supplemented with a long-range Jastrow factor, provide a proper variational description of Mott insulators, so far unavailable. We demonstrate this concept in the prototypical one-dimensional $t-t^\prime$ Hubbard model, where at half filling we reproduce all known phases, namely the ordinary Mott undimerized insulator with power-law spin correlations at small $t^\prime/t$, the spin-gapped metal above a critical $t^\prime/t$ and small $U$, and the dimerized Mott insulator at large repulsion.