Anomalous superconductivity and its competition with antiferromagnetism in doped Mott insulators

Abstract

Proximity to a Mott insulating phase is likely to be an important physical ingredient of a theory that aims to describe high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates. Quantum cluster methods are well suited to describe the Mott phase. Hence, as a step towards a quantitative theory of the competition between antiferromagnetism (AFM) and d-wave superconductivity (SC) in the cuprates, we use Cellular Dynamical Mean Field Theory to compute zero temperature properties of the two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model. The d-wave order parameter is found to scale like the superexchange coupling J for on-site interaction U comparable to or larger than the bandwidth. The order parameter also assumes a dome shape as a function of doping while, by contrast, the gap in the single-particle density of states decreases monotonically with increasing doping. In the presence of a finite second-neighbor hopping t', the zero temperature phase diagram displays the electron-hole asymmetric competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity that is observed experimentally in the cuprates. Adding realistic third-neighbor hopping t'' improves the overall agreement with the experimental phase diagram. Since band parameters can vary depending on the specific cuprate considered, the sensitivity of the theoretical phase diagram to band parameters challenges the commonly held assumption that the doping vs T_{c}/T_{c}^{max} phase diagram of the cuprates is universal. The calculated ARPES spectrum displays the observed electron-hole asymmetry. Our calculations reproduce important features of d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates that would otherwise be considered anomalous from the point of view of the standard BCS approach.