Exact Ground States of the Periodic Anderson Model in D=3 Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper constructs exact ground states for three-dimensional periodic Anderson models, revealing diverse insulating and metallic phases, including a non-Fermi liquid state with unique properties, across a broad parameter space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to find exact ground states of 3D periodic Anderson models, including the conventional model, and characterizes their physical properties and phase stability.

Findings

Identification of insulating and conducting stability regions.

Discovery of a non-Fermi liquid metallic phase with specific band structure.

Existence of exact ferromagnetic ground states at low fillings.

Abstract

We construct a class of exact ground states of three-dimensional periodic Anderson models (PAMs) -- including the conventional PAM -- on regular Bravais lattices at and above 3/4 filling, and discuss their physical properties. In general, the f electrons can have a (weak) dispersion, and the hopping and the non-local hybridization of the d and f electrons extend over the unit cell. The construction is performed in two steps. First the Hamiltonian is cast into positive semi-definite form using composite operators in combination with coupled non-linear matching conditions. This may be achieved in several ways, thus leading to solutions in different regions of the phase diagram. In a second step, a non-local product wave function in position space is constructed which allows one to identify various stability regions corresponding to insulating and conducting states. The compressibility of the insulating state is shown to diverge at the boundary of its stability regime. The metallic phase is a non-Fermi liquid with one dispersing and one flat band. This state is also an exact ground state of the conventional PAM and has the following properties: (i) it is non-magnetic with spin-spin correlations disappearing in the thermodynamic limit, (ii) density-density correlations are short-ranged, and (iii) the momentum distributions of the interacting electrons are analytic functions, i.e., have no discontinuities even in their derivatives. The stability regions of the ground states extend through a large region of parameter space, e.g., from weak to strong on-site interaction U. Exact itinerant, ferromagnetic ground states are found at and below 1/4 filling.