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1. Pairing of holes by confining strings in antiferromagnets

   https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.14.5.090  

   Grusdt, Fabian ; Demler, Eugene ; Bohrdt, Annabelle ( January 2023 , SciPost Physics)

   In strongly correlated quantum materials, the behavior of charge carriers is dominated by strong electron-electron interactions. These can lead to insulating states with spin order, and upon doping to competing ordered states including unconventional superconductivity. The underlying pairing mechanism remains poorly understood however, even in strongly simplified theoretical models. Recent advances in quantum simulation allow to study pairing in paradigmatic settings, e.g. in the t-J t − J and t-J_z t − J z Hamiltonians. Even there, the most basic properties of paired states of only two dopants, such as their dispersion relation and excitation spectra, remain poorly studied in many cases. Here we provide new analytical insights into a possible string-based pairing mechanism of mobile holes in an antiferromagnet. We analyze an effective model of partons connected by a confining string and calculate the spectral properties of bound states. Our model is equally relevant for understanding Hubbard-Mott excitons consisting of a bound doublon-hole pair or confined states of dynamical matter in lattice gauge theories, which motivates our study of different parton statistics. Although an accurate semi-analytic estimation of binding energies is challenging, our theory provides a detailed understanding of the internal structure of pairs. For example, in a range of settings we predict heavy states of immobile pairs with flat-band dispersions - including for the lowest-energy d d -wave pair of fermions. Our findings shed new light on the long-standing question about the origin of pairing and competing orders in high-temperature superconductors. 

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2. Ground-state phase diagram of the t-t ′ -J model

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109978118  

   Jiang, Shengtao ; Scalapino, Douglas J. ; White, Steven R. ( October 2021 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   We report results of large-scale ground-state density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations on t-$t^{\prime }$-J cylinders with circumferences 6 and 8. We determine a rough phase diagram that appears to approximate the two-dimensional (2D) system. While for many properties, positive and negative$t^{\prime }$values ($t^{\prime }/t=\pm 0.2$) appear to correspond to electron- and hole-doped cuprate systems, respectively, the behavior of superconductivity itself shows an inconsistency between the model and the materials. The$t^{\prime }<0$(hole-doped) region shows antiferromagnetism limited to very low doping, stripes more generally, and the familiar Fermi surface of the hole-doped cuprates. However, we find$t^{\prime }<0$strongly suppresses superconductivity. The$t^{\prime }>0$(electron-doped) region shows the expected circular Fermi pocket of holes around the$\left(\pi ,\pi \right)$point and a broad low-doped region of coexisting antiferromagnetism and d-wave pairing with a triplet p component at wavevector$\left(\pi ,\pi \right)$induced by the antiferromagnetism and d-wave pairing. The pairing for the electron low-doped system with$t^{\prime }>0$is strong and unambiguous in the DMRG simulations. At larger doping another broad region with stripes in addition to weaker d-wave pairing and striped p-wave pairing appears. In a small doping region near$x=0.08$for$t^{\prime }\sim -0.2$, we find an unconventional type of stripe involving unpaired holes located predominantly on chains spaced three lattice spacings apart. The undoped two-leg ladder regions in between mimic the short-ranged spin correlations seen in two-leg Heisenberg ladders.

    

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3. Valence transition theory of the pressure-induced dimensionality crossover in superconducting Sr14−xCaxCu24O41

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.134510  

   Song, Jeong-Pil ; Clay, R. Torsten ; Mazumdar, Sumit ( October 2023 , Physical Review B)

   Stephen E. Nagler (Ed.)

   One of the strongest justifications for the continued search for superconductivity within the single-band Hubbard Hamiltonian originates from the apparent success of single-band ladder-based theories in predicting the occurrence of superconductivity in the cuprate coupled-ladder compound Sr{14−x}Ca{x}Cu{24}O{41}. Recent theoretical works have, however, shown the complete absence of quasi-long-range superconducting correlations within the hole-doped multiband ladder Hamiltonian including realistic Coulomb repulsion between holes on oxygen sites and oxygen-oxygen hole hopping. Experimentally, superconductivity in Sr{14−x}Ca{x}Cu{24}O{41} occurs only under pressure and is preceded by dramatic transition from one to two dimensions that remains not understood. We show that understanding the dimensional crossover requires adopting a valence transition model within which there occurs transition in Cu-ion ionicity from +2 to +1 , with transfer of holes from Cu to O ions [S. Mazumdar, Phys. Rev. B 98, 205153 (2018)]. The driving force behind the valence transition is the closed-shell electron configuration of Cu^{1+} , a feature shared by cations of all oxides with a negative charge-transfer gap. We make a falsifiable experimental prediction for Sr{14−x}Ca{x}Cu{24}O{41} and discuss the implications of our results for layered two-dimensional cuprates. 

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4. Tuning from failed superconductor to failed insulator with magnetic field

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav7686  

   Li, Yangmu ; Terzic, J. ; Baity, P. G. ; Popović, Dragana ; Gu, G. D. ; Li, Qiang ; Tsvelik, A. M. ; Tranquada, J. M. ( June 2019 , Science Advances)

   Do charge modulations compete with electron pairing in high-temperature copper oxide superconductors? We investigated this question by suppressing superconductivity in a stripe-ordered cuprate compound at low temperature with high magnetic fields. With increasing field, loss of three-dimensional superconducting order is followed by reentrant two-dimensional superconductivity and then an ultraquantum metal phase. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the latter state is bosonic and associated with the charge stripes. These results provide experimental support to the theoretical perspective that local segregation of doped holes and antiferromagnetic spin correlations underlies the electron-pairing mechanism in cuprates. 

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5. Crossover of high-energy spin fluctuations from collective triplons to localized magnetic excitations in Sr14−xCaxCu24O41 ladders

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-022-00502-1  

   Tseng, Y. ; Thomas, J. ; Zhang, W. ; Paris, E. ; Puphal, P. ; Bag, R. ; Deng, G. ; Asmara, T. C. ; Strocov, V. N. ; Singh, S. ; et al ( December 2022 , npj Quantum Materials)

   Abstract We studied the magnetic excitations in the quasi-one-dimensional (q-1D) ladder subsystem of Sr 14−x Ca x Cu 24 O 41 (SCCO) using Cu L 3 -edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). By comparing momentum-resolved RIXS spectra with high ( x  = 12.2) and without ( x  = 0) Ca content, we track the evolution of the magnetic excitations from collective two-triplon (2 T) excitations ( x  = 0) to weakly-dispersive gapped modes at an energy of 280 meV ( x  = 12.2). Density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations of the RIXS response in the doped ladders suggest that the flat magnetic dispersion and damped excitation profile observed at x  = 12.2 originates from enhanced hole localization. This interpretation is supported by polarization-dependent RIXS measurements, where we disentangle the spin-conserving Δ S  = 0 scattering from the predominant Δ S  = 1 spin-flip signal in the RIXS spectra. The results show that the low-energy weight in the Δ S  = 0 channel is depleted when Sr is replaced by Ca, consistent with a reduced carrier mobility. Our results demonstrate that off-ladder impurities can affect both the low-energy magnetic excitations and superconducting correlations in the CuO 4 plaquettes. Finally, our study characterizes the magnetic and charge fluctuations in the phase from which superconductivity emerges in SCCO at elevated pressures. 

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