Decomposing momentum scales in the Hubbard Model: From Hatsugai-Kohmoto to Aubry-Andr\'e

Abstract

The all-to-all momentum coupling of the Hubbard interaction makes interacting lattice models generically unsolvable. In many settings, however, from Peierls instabilities to Moir\'e superlattice physics, the low-energy behavior is dominated by scattering at a few characteristic wavevectors. We exploit this by constructing a momentum-space clustering scheme that retains only a chosen subset of interaction channels. Our scheme can be considered a generalization of twist-averaged boundary conditions. In proving this, we also prove that our scheme can be considered as a generalization of Hatsugai-Kohmoto (HK) models, and all versions of the HK model previously considered in the literature arise as special cases. This shows that the surprising phenomenological success of HK models arises from their correspondence to the finite-site Hubbard model. In particular, the recently introduced "Momentum-Mixing HK" model corresponds to a specific choice of clustering limit, which is equal to the original finite-site Hubbard model with twist-averaged boundary conditions. Our scheme becomes particularly powerful when a spatially varying potential selects the dominant momentum channels. We demonstrate this on the one-dimensional analogue of interacting moir\'e systems: the Aubry-Andr\'e-Hubbard model. We show that for sufficiently strong onsite potential, clusters as small as two sites can recover the ground state energy to below 1% error relative to DMRG benchmarks. This establishes that physically motivated momentum-space truncations can yield accurate low-energy descriptions at feasible computational cost, opening a path toward tractable interacting models of Moir\'e systems in two dimensions. Code for reproducing all numerical results is available at https://github.com/chainik1125/decomposing-hubbard.