Strongly correlated electrons on the honeycombb lattice: magnetism and superconductivity

Abstract

In view of quite recent experimental activities on magnetic and superconducting properties of honeycomb and hexagonal lattice based materials, in this thesis we have used field-theoretic and many-body methods to investigate magnetic and superconducting properties of the large-U Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice at half-filling and in the hole-doped regime. Within the framework of a functional-integral approach, we obtain the Lagrangian density associated with the charge (Grassmann fields) and spin [SU(2) gauge fields] degrees of freedom. The Hamiltonian related to the charge degrees of freedom is exactly diagonalized. In the strong-coupling regime, we derive a perturbative low-energy theory suitable to describe the (quantum) magnetic and superconducting phases at half-filling and in the hole-doped regime. At half-filling, we deal with the underlying spin degrees of freedom of the quantum antiferromagnetic (AF) Heisenberg model by employing a second-order spin-wave analysis, in which case we have calculated the ground-state energy and the staggered magnetization; the results are in very good agreement with previous studies. Further, in the continuum, we derive a nonlinear σ-model with a topological Hopf term that describes the AF-VBS (valence bond solid) competition. In the challenging hole-doped regime, our approach allows the derivation of a t-J Hamiltonian, and the analysis of the role played by charge and spin quantum fluctuations on the ground-state energy and, particularly, on the breakdown of the AF order at a critical hole doping; the results are benchmarked against recent Grassmann tensor product state simulations. In addition, we have performed an extensive study of the electronic structure of the doped system for each competing phase: AF, ferromagnetic (FM), and (spin-singlet pairing) s-, dx₂₋ʏ₂ – and idxʏ -wave superconducting (SC) state induced by purely electronic effects. In this context, an energetic analysis of the ground state of these phases reveal that the AF order prevails for low hole doping, while a dominantly chiral dx₂₋ʏ₂ + idxʏ superconducting state was found in the vicinity of the Van Hove singularity (high hole doping). We also stress that a thermodynamic analysis of the superconducting phase shows that the critical temperature is directly related to the exchange constant J = 4t²/U, in which t denotes the hopping amplitude and U the on-site Coulomb repulsion of the Hubbard model (purely electronic origin). Remarkably, the competition between the AF and dx₂₋ʏ₂ + idxʏ SC phases takes place by the occurrence of a first-order transition accompanied by a spatial phase separation of the referred phases.