Low energy states with different symmetries in the t-J model with two holes on a 32-site lattice

Abstract

We study the low energy states of the t-J model with two holes on a 32-site lattice with periodic boundary conditions. In contrary to common belief, we find that the state with d_{x^2-y^2} symmetry is not always the ground state in the realistic parameter range 0.2\le J/t\le 0.4. There exist low-lying finite-momentum p-states whose energies are lower than the d_{x^2-y^2} state when J/t is small enough. We compare various properties of these low energy states at J/t=0.3 where they are almost degenerate, and find that those properties associated with the holes (such as the hole-hole correlation and the electron momentum distribution function) are very different between the d_{x^2-y^2} and p states, while their spin properties are very similar. Finally, we demonstrate that by adding ``realistic'' terms to the t-J model Hamiltonian, we can easily destroy the d_{x^2-y^2} ground state. This casts doubt on the robustness of the d_{x^2-y^2} state as the ground state in a microscopic model for the high temperature superconductors.