# Excitation spectrum of the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model

## Abstract

We calculate the one-particle spectral functions above the superconducting transition temperature $`T_C`$, in the framework of a functional integral approach. The coupling of the electronic self-energy to pair fluctuations, which are treated by means of a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation, yields a double-peak structure, around the Fermi wavenumber. The peak separation is essentially temperature-independent, but the structure sharpens when $`T_C`$ is approached.

Although the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model does not represent a suitable model to describe the complex physical behavior of the high-temperature superconducting compounds, it has recently attracted renewed interest , on one hand because of its simplicity and, on the other hand, because it incorporates two fundamental properties of the cuprate superconductors : working in two dimensions permits to take into account the strong anisotropy of the latter materials (at least in the underdoped regime), while the on-site attraction can account for the characteristic short in-plane coherence length, which has been experimentally determined.   
In a previous paper , we calculated the one-electron Green’s function of the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model, by coupling the charge carriers to pair fluctuations, which were subsequently approximated by a homogeneous amplitude and by phase fluctuations, corresponding to the 2D-XY model; we found that the electronic density of states shows a pseudogap at temperatures well above the superconducting transition temperature $`T_C`$.   
In the present communication, we shall treat pair fluctuations above $`T_C`$ by means of a time-dependent Ginzburg- Landau equation. In order to derive the latter, the interaction term appearing in the Hamiltonian of the attractive Hubbard model is decoupled by a standard Stratonovich-Hubbard transformation, through which a complex, fluctuating pairing field $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ appears. The partition function is thereafter written as the functional integral, over the latter field, of an effective action which, upon exploiting the usual cumulant expansion for expectation values up to fourth order in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, becomes a dynamic Ginzburg-Landau-like functional, $`S(\mathrm{\Delta })`$. The expectation value of the squared modulus of the pairing field $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ has the form :

$`\mathrm{\Xi }(\stackrel{}{q},z_\alpha )\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{}{q},z_\alpha )^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{a+cq^2+(d_1+id_2)z_\alpha }},`$ (1)   
where $`a`$, $`c`$, $`d_1`$ and $`d_2`$ are real coefficients that emerge from expanding the inverse of the two-particle propagator, for small wavenumbers $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ and (bosonic Matsubara) frequencies $`z_\alpha `$. To lowest order, the self-energy is given by  :

$`\sigma (\stackrel{}{k},z_\nu )={\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{q},z_\alpha }{}}\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{}{q},z_\nu )^2G_0(\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{q},z_\nu z_\alpha )=`$ (2)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{q}}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}Im\left[\mathrm{\Xi }(\stackrel{}{q},\zeta )\right]G_0(\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{q},\zeta z_\nu )n_B(\zeta )𝑑\zeta `$ (3)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{q}}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Xi }(\stackrel{}{q},z_\nu +\eta )Im[G_0(\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{q},\eta )]n_F(\eta )𝑑\eta ,`$ (4)   
where $`n_B(\omega )`$ and $`n_F(\omega )`$, respectively, are the usual Bose-Einstein and Fermi distribution functions.   
Contrary to the self-consistent T-matrix approach , the self-energy given by Eqn. (2) involves the non-interacting one-particle Green’s function $`G_0(\stackrel{}{k},z)`$  : on one hand, this choice provides us with analytically tractable expressions while, on the other hand, it should give physically reasonable results, because approximations which include self-consistency without the necessary vertex corrections are unable to reproduce the precursor effects , which we aim at putting in evidence. We use the isotropic spectrum $`E(\stackrel{}{k})=\frac{k^2}{2m}\mu `$. For the values of the Ginzburg-Landau parameters $`a`$ and $`c`$, we use the strong-coupling limit , whereas we determine $`d_1`$ and $`d_2`$ from the best fit to the T-matrix resulting from Monte-Carlo calculations . The imaginary part of the self-energy is shown on Fig. 1, for two temperatures above the transition temperature, which is defined by $`a(T_C)=0`$. We have chosen $`T_C=0.1t`$ ($`t`$ is the hopping parameter of the original Hubbard Hamiltonian), in agreement with T-matrix calculations  and numerical simulations . A transition at a non-zero temperature (which is also observed in Quantum Monte Carlo calculations, due to finite size effects ) would either have to be identified with a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition or as being due to a small coupling in the third dimension. The most important features are the following : (i) the imaginary part of the self-energy shows a strong dependence upon wavenumber; upon increasing $`k`$, the rather pronounced peak moves down to the chemical potential, crosses it at $`k=k_F`$ and then continues down to lower energies; (ii) as the temperature increases, the imaginary part of the self-energy presents essentially the same structure, but the peaks get substantially broadened; (iii) for large wavenumbers, $`Im\left[\sigma (\stackrel{}{k},\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }})\right]`$ becomes almost featureless; this result probably arises from the fact that we have worked within the continuum limit while, on the lattice, the appearance of the so-called $`\eta `$-resonance would significantly modify the spectral properties at the edge of the Brillouin zone ; (iv) interestingly enough, we note that, except near the Fermi wavenumber, the imaginary part of the self-energy shows a minimum near the chemical potential, which, according to many authors , is a salient feature of a Landau Fermi liquid; however, for $`kk_F`$, we note that a rather pronounced peak appears near the chemical potential.   
The real part of the self-energy given by Eqn. (2) is computed by performing a Kramers-Kronig transformation; thereafter, the one-particle Green’s function is obtained. In Fig. 2, we present the one-particle spectral functions for two different temperatures and for different wavenumbers. First of all, similarly to the case for the imaginary part of the self-energy, the spectral peaks broaden up, upon increasing the temperature above $`T_C`$; this is essentially the only effect and, in particular, we note that the position of the peaks does not change. Secondly, for the wavenumbers around $`k_F`$, the spectral function acquires a two-peak structure, which is symmetric with respect to the chemical potential for $`k=k_F`$. This feature persists to higher temperatures, though the thermal broadening tends to smear out the two-peaked structure.   
On Fig. 3, we report the positions of the spectral peaks, which have a weight significantly different from zero. We note that, contrarily to the phase fluctuation approach that we presented in , the opening of a pseudogap, upon approaching $`T_C`$ from above, is principally due to the double-peak structure around $`k_F`$.   
Summarizing, we have computed the excitation spectrum emerging from the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model, upon treating the pair fluctuations above $`T_C`$ by means of a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. Around the Fermi wavenumber, the spectral functions exhibit a double-peak structure, the separation of which is essentially temperature-independent. Moreover, the spectral peaks sharpen when $`T_C`$ is approached from above. The resulting one-particle density of states thus shows a pseudogap of almost constant width, above the superconducting transition temperature.   
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.