Orbital liquid in the $e_g$ orbital Hubbard model in $d=\infty$ dimensions

Abstract

We demonstrate that the three-dimensional $e_g$ orbital Hubbard model can be generalized to arbitrary dimension $d$, and that the form of the result is determined uniquely by the requirements that (i) the two-fold degeneracy of the $e_g$ orbital be retained, and (ii) the cubic lattice be turned into a hypercubic lattice. While the local Coulomb interaction $U$ is invariant for each basis of orthogonal orbitals, the form of the kinetic energy depends on the orbital basis and takes the most symmetric form for the so-called complex-orbital basis. Characteristically, with respect to this basis, the model has two hopping channels, one that is orbital-flavor conserving, and a second one that is orbital-flavor non-conserving. We show that the noninteracting electronic structure consists of two nondegenerate bands of plane-wave real-orbital single-particle states for which the orbital depends on the wave vector. Due to the latter feature each band is unpolarized at any filling, and has a non-Gaussian density of states at $d=\infty$. The \textit{orbital liquid} state is obtained by filling these two bands up to the same Fermi energy. We investigate the $e_g$ orbital Hubbard model in the limit $d\to\infty$, treating the on-site Coulomb interaction $U$ within the Gutzwiller approximation, thus determining the correlation energy of the orbital liquid and the (disordered) para-orbital states. (...) We show that the orbital liquid is the ground state everywhere in the $(n,U)$ phase diagram except close to half-filling at sufficiently large $U$, where ferro-orbital order with real orbitals occupied is favored. The latter feature is shown to be specific for $d=\infty$, being of mathematical nature due to the exponential tails in the density of states.