Superconductivity in the two-dimensional Hubbard model revealed by neural quantum states

Abstract

Whether the ground state of the square lattice Hubbard model exhibits superconductivity remains a major open question, central to understanding high temperature cuprate superconductors and ultra-cold fermions in optical lattices. Numerical studies have found evidence for stripe-ordered states and superconductivity at strong coupling but the phase diagram remains controversial. Here, we show that one can resolve the subtle energetics of metallic, superconducting, and stripe phases using a new class of neural quantum state (NQS) wavefunctions that extend hidden fermion determinant states to Pfaffians. We simulate several hundred electrons using fast Pfaffian algorithms allowing us to measure off-diagonal long range order. At strong coupling and low hole-doping, we find that a non-superconducting filled stripe phase prevails, while superconductivity coexisting with partially-filled stripes is stabilized by a negative next neighbor hopping t-prime, with |t-prime| > 0.1. At larger doping levels, we introduce momentum-space correlation functions to mitigate finite size effects that arise from weakly-bound pairs. These provide evidence for uniform d-wave superconductivity at U = 4, even when t-prime = 0. Our results highlight the potential of NQS approaches, and provide a fresh perspective on superconductivity in the square lattice Hubbard model.