We give a comprehensive introduction into an efficient numerical scheme for the minimisation of Gutzwiller energy functionals in studies on multi-band Hubbard models. Our method covers all conceivable cases of Gutzwiller variational wave functions and has been used successfully in previous numerical studies.
In this tutorial presentation, we give a comprehensive introduction into the Gutzwiller variational approach and its merger with the density functional theory. The merits of this method are illustrated by a discussion of results for two-band Hubbard models and realistic multi-band Hamiltonians for iron-pnictide systems.
The minimum of the Gutzwiller energy functional depends on the number of parameters considered in the variational state. For a three-orbital Hubbard model we find that the frequently used diagonal Ansatz is very accurate in high-symmetry situations. For lower symmetry, induced by a crystal-field splitting or the spin-orbit coupling, the discrepancies in energy between the most general and a diagonal Gutzwiller Ansatz can be quite significant. We discuss approximate schemes that may be employed in multi-band cases where a minimization of the general Gutzwiller energy functional is too demanding…
The ground states of Na$_x$CoO$_2$ ($0.0<x<1.0$) is studied by the LDA+Gutzwiller approach, where charge transfer and orbital fluctuations are all self-consistently treated {\it ab-initio}. In contrast to previous studies, which are parameter-dependent, we characterized the phase diagram as: (1) Stoner magnetic metal for $x>0.6$ due to $a_{1g}$ van-Hove singularity near band top; (2) correlated non-magnetic metal without $e_g^{\prime}$ pockets for $0.3<x<0.6$; (3) $e_g^{\prime}$ pockets appear for $x<0.3$, and additional magnetic instability involves. Experimental quasi-particle properties is …
We use the Gutzwiller Density Functional Theory to calculate ground-state properties and bandstructures of iron in its body-centered-cubic (bcc) and hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) phases. For a Hubbard interaction $U=9\, {\rm eV}$ and Hund's-rule coupling $J=0.54\, {\rm eV}$ we reproduce the lattice parameter, magnetic moment, and bulk modulus of bcc iron. For these parameters, bcc is the ground-state lattice structure at ambient pressure up to a pressure of $p_{\rm c}=41\, {\rm GPa}$ where a transition to the non-magnetic hcp structure is predicted, in qualitative agreement with experiment ($p_…
Multi-band Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions reconcile the contrasting concepts of itinerant band electrons versus electrons localized in partially filled atomic shells. The exact evaluation of these variational ground states in the limit of large coordination number allows the identification of quasi-particle band structures, and the calculation of a variational spinwave dispersion. The study of a generic two-band model elucidates the co-operation of the Coulomb repulsion and the Hund's-rule exchange for itinerant ferromagnetism. We present results of calculations for ferromagnetic nickel,…
A series of Cerium based heavy fermion materials is studied using a combination of local density functional theory and many-body Gutzwiller approximation. Computed orbial dependent electronic mass enhancements parameters are compared with available data extracted from measured values of the Sommerfeld coefficient. The Gutzwiller density functional theory is shown to remarkably follow the trends across a variety of Ce compounds, and to give important insights on orbital selective mass renormalizations that allows a better understanding of wide spread of data.
We present a detailed derivation of the Gutzwiller Density Functional Theory that covers all conceivable cases of symmetries and Gutzwiller wave functions. The method is used in a study of ferromagnetic nickel where we calculate ground state properties (lattice constant, bulk modulus, spin magnetic moment) and the quasi-particle band structure. Our method resolves most shortcomings of an ordinary Density Functional calculation on nickel. However, the quality of the results strongly depends on the particular choice of the double-counting correction. This constitutes a serious problem for all me…
We introduce in detail our newly developed \textit{ab initio} LDA+Gutzwiller method, in which the Gutzwiller variational approach is naturally incorporated with the density functional theory (DFT) through the "Gutzwiller density functional theory (GDFT)" (which is a generalization of original Kohn-Sham formalism). This method can be used for ground state determination of electron systems ranging from weakly correlated metal to strongly correlated insulators with long-range ordering. We will show that its quality for ground state is as high as that by dynamic mean field theory (DMFT), and yet i…
The electronic structures of FeAs-compounds strongly depend on the Fe-As bonding, which can not be described successfully by the local density approximation (LDA). Treating the multi-orbital fluctuations from $ab$-$initio$ by LDA+Gutzwiller method, we are now able to predict the correct Fe-As bond-length, and find that Fe-As bonding-strength is 30% weaker, which will explain the observed "soft phonon". The bands are narrowed by a factor of 2, and the $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbital is pushed up to cross the Fermi level, forming 3-dimensional Fermi surfaces, which suppress the anisotropy and the ($π,π$)…
We present a method to compute pairing fluctuations on top of the Gutzwiller approximation (GA). Our investigations are based on a charge-rotational invariant GA energy functional which is expanded up to second order in the pair fluctuations. Equations of motion for the fluctuations lead to a renormalized ladder type approximation. Both spectral functions and corrections to static quantities, like the ground-state energy, are computed. The quality of the method is examined for the single-band Hubbard model where we compare the dynamical pairing correlations for s- and d-wave symmetries with ex…
Combining the density functional theory (DFT) and the Gutzwiller variational approach, a LDA+Gutzwiller method is developed to treat the correlated electron systems from {\it ab-initio}. All variational parameters are self-consistently determined from total energy minimization. The method is computationally cheaper, yet the quasi-particle spectrum is well described through kinetic energy renormalization. It can be applied equally to the systems from weakly correlated metals to strongly correlated insulators. The calculated results for SrVO$_3$, Fe, Ni and NiO, show dramatic improvement over LD…
We present a self-consistent numerical approach to solve the Gutzwiller variational problem for general multi-band models with arbitrary on-site interaction. The proposed method generalizes and improves the procedure derived by Deng et al., Phys. Rev. B. 79 075114 (2009), overcoming the restriction to density-density interaction without increasing the complexity of the computational algorithm. Our approach drastically reduces the problem of the high-dimensional Gutzwiller minimization by mapping it to a minimization only in the variational density matrix, in the spirit of the Levy and Lieb for…
We use a spin-rotational invariant Gutzwiller energy functional to compute random-phase-approximation-like (RPA) fluctuations on top of the Gutzwiller approximation (GA). The method can be viewed as an extension of the previously developed GA+RPA approach for the charge sector [G. Seibold and J. Lorenzana, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 2605 (2001)] with respect to the inclusion of the magnetic excitations. Unlike the charge case, no assumptions about the time evolution of the double occupancy are needed in this case. Interestingly, in a spin-rotational invariant system, we find the correct degene…
The Gutzwiller technique has long been known as a method to include correlations in electronic structure calculations. Here we implement an ab-initio Gutzwiller+LDA calculation, and apply it to a classic problem, the ferromagnetism of bulk bcc Fe, whose nature has attracted recent interest. In the conventional Stoner-Wohlfarth model, the ferromagnetic ordering of iron sets in so that the electrons can reduce their mutual Coulomb repulsion at the extra cost of some increase of electron kinetic energy. Density functional theory within the spin polarized local density approximation (LDA) has long…
We propose a density functional to find the ground state energy and density of interacting particles, where both the density and the pair density can adjust in the presence of an inhomogeneous potential. As a proof of principle we formulate an a priori exact functional for the inhomogeneous Hubbard model. The functional has the same form as the Gutzwiller approximation but with an unknown kinetic energy reduction factor. An approximation to the functional based on the exact solution of the uniform problem leads to a substantial improvement over the local density approximation.
We develop a systematic approach to construct energy functionals of the one-particle reduced density matrix (1RDM) for equilibrium systems at finite temperature. The starting point of our formulation is the grand potential $Ω[\mathbf{G}]$ regarded as variational functional of the Green's function $G$ based on diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory and for which we consider either the Klein or Luttinger-Ward form. By restricting the input Green's function to be one-to-one related to a set on one-particle reduced density matrices (1RDM) this functional becomes a functional of the 1RDM. To es…