Universal probes for antiferromagnetic correlations and entropy in cold fermions on optical lattices

Abstract

We determine antiferromagnetic (AF) signatures in the half-filled Hubbard model at strong coupling on a cubic lattice and in lower dimensions. Upon cooling, the transition from the charge-excitation regime to the AF Heisenberg regime is signaled by a universal minimum of the double occupancy at entropy s=S/(N k_B)=s*=ln(2) per particle and a linear increase of the next-nearest neighbor (NNN) spin correlation function for s<s*. This crossover, driven by a gain in kinetic exchange energy, appears as the essential AF physics relevant for current cold-atom experiments. The onset of long-range AF order (at low s on cubic lattices) is hardly visible in nearest-neighbor spin correlations versus s, but could be detected in spin correlations at or beyond NNN distances.