Mottness on a triangular lattice
Abstract
We study the physics on the paramagnetic side of the phase diagram of the cobaltates, NaxCoO2, with an implementation of cellular dynamical mean field theory (CDMFT) with the non-crossing approximation (NCA) for the one-band Hubbard model on a triangular lattice. At low doping we find that the low energy physics is dominated by a quasi-dispersionless band. At half-filling, we find a metal-insulator transition at Uc=5.60.15t which depends weakly on the cluster size. The onset of the metallic state occurs through the growth of a coherence peak at the chemical potential. Away from half filling, in the electron-doped regime, the system is metallic with a large, continuous Fermi surface as seen experimentally. Upon hole doping, a quasi non-dispersing band emerges at the top of the lower Hubbard band and controls the low-energy physics. This band is a clear signature of non-Fermi liquid behavior and cannot be captured by any weakly coupled approach. This quasi non-dispersive band, which persists in a certain range of dopings, has been observed experimentally. We also investigate the pseudogap phenomenon in the context of a triangular lattice and we propose a new framework for discussing the pseudogap phenomena in general. This framework involves a momentum-dependent characterization of the low-energy physics and links the appearance of the pseudogap to a reconstruction of the Fermi surface without invoking any long range order or symmetry breaking. Within this framework we predict the existence of a pseudogap for the two dimensional Hubbard model on a triangular lattice in the weakly hole-doped regime.