Unambiguous fluctuation decomposition of the self-energy: pseudogap physics beyond spin fluctuations

Abstract

Correlated electron systems may give rise to multiple effective interactions whose combined impact on quasiparticle properties can be difficult to disentangle. We introduce an unambiguous decomposition of the electronic self-energy which allows us to quantify the contributions of various effective interactions simultaneously. We use this tool to revisit the hole-doped Hubbard model within the dynamical cluster approximation, where commonly spin fluctuations are considered to be the origin of the pseudogap. While our fluctuation decomposition confirms that spin fluctuations indeed suppress antinodal electronic spectral weight, we show that they alone can not capture the pseudogap self-energy quantitatively. Nonlocal multi-boson Feynman diagrams yield substantial contributions and are needed for a quantitative description of the pseudogap.