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We review the Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) theory of high temperatur e superconductivity using Gutzwiller projected wave functions that incorporate strong correlations. After a general overview of the phenomenon of high temperature superconductivity, we discuss Anderson's RVB picture and its implementation by renormalised mean field theory (RMFT) and variational Monte Carlo (VMC) techniques. We review RMFT and VMC results with an emphasis on recent development s in extending VMC and RMFT techniques to excited states. We compare results obtained from these methods with angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). We conclude by summarising recent successes of this approach and discuss open problems that need to be solved for a consistent and complete description of high temperature superconductivity using Gutzwiller projected wave functions., Comment: Review, Adv. Phys. (in press)

We generalize the Gutzwiller approximation scheme to the calculation of nontrivial matrix elements between the ground state and excited states. In our scheme, the normalization of the Gutzwiller wave function relative to a partially projected wave function with a single non projected site (the reservoir site) plays a key role. For the Gutzwiller projected Fermi sea, we evaluate the relative normalization both analytically and by variational Monte-Carlo (VMC). We also report VMC results for projected superconducting states that show novel oscillations in the hole density near the reservoir site.

Following the recent discussion on the puzzling nature of the interactions in the nanotubular system Na2V3O7, we present a detailed ab-initio microscopic analysis of its electronic and magnetic properties. By means of a non-trivial downfolding study we propose an effective model in terms of tubes of nine-site rings with the geometry of a spin-diamond necklace with frustrated inter-ring interactions. We show that this model provides a quantitative account of the observed magnetic behavior., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press)

We propose a mechanism for the observed stacking charge order in the quarter-filled ladder compound NaV2O5. Via a standard mapping of the charge degrees of freedom onto Ising spins we explain the stacking order as a result of competition between couplings of the nearest and next-nearest planes with the 4-fold degenerate super-antiferroelectric in-plane order., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

In the situation of two electro-statically coupled conductors a current in one conductor may induce a current in the other one. We will study this phenomenon, called Coulomb drag, in the Hubbard chain where the two ``conductors'' are given by fermions with different spin orientation. With the aid of a Monte Carlo (MC) approach which we presented in a recent paper we calculate the Transconductance in different variants of the Hubbard chain (with/without impurity and additional [long-ranged] interactions) for different fillings., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures

We study the 2D Ising model on a square lattice with additional non-equal diagonal next-nearest neighbor interactions. The cases of classical and quantum (transverse) models are considered. Possible phases and their locations in the space of three Ising couplings are analyzed. In particular, incommensurate phases occurring only at non-equal diagonal couplings, are predicted. We also analyze a spin-pseudospin model comprised of the quantum Ising model coupled to XY spin chains in a particular region of interactions, corresponding to the Ising sector's super-antiferromagnetic (SAF) ground state. The spin-SAF transition in the coupled Ising-XY model into a phase with co-existent SAF Ising (pseudospin) long-range order and a spin gap is considered. Along with destruction of the quantum critical point of the Ising sector, the phase digram of the Ising-XY model can also demonstrate a re-entrance of the spin-SAF phase. A detailed study of the latter is presented. The mechanism of the re-entrance, due to interplay of interactions in the coupled model, and the conditions of its appearance are established. Applications of the spin-SAF theory for the transition in the quarter-filled ladder compound NaV2O5 are discussed., Comment: Minor revisions and refs. added; published version of the invited paper in a special issue of "Low Temp. Physics"

The effective Hamiltonian of strongly correlated electrons on a square lattice is replaced by a renormalised Hamiltonian and the factors that renormalise the kinetic energy of holes and the Heisenberg spin-spin coupling are calculated using a Gutzwiller approximation scheme. The accuracy of this renormalisation procedure is tested numerically and found to be qualitatively excellent. Within the scheme a resonant valence bond (RVB) wavefunction is found at half-filling to be lower in energy than the antiferromagnetic state. If the wavefunction is expressed in fermion operators, local SU(2) and U(l) invariance leads to a redundancy in the representation. The introduction of holes removes these local invariances and we find that a d-wave RVB state is lowest in energy. This state has a superconducting order parameter whose amplitude is linear in the density of holes., Comment: reproduced for reader's convenience. one of key references in cond-mat/0311467. Reprint at http://www.physics.hku.hk/~fczhang

We study the spin-pseudospin Hamiltonian of the Ising Model in Transverse Field (IMTF) for pseudospins, coupled to the XY-spins on a triangular lattice. This model appears from analyses of the quarter-filled ladder compound $NaV_2O_5$, and pseudospins represent its charge degrees of freedom. In the molecular-field approximation we find that the model possesses two phases: charge-disordered without spin gap; and a low-temperature phase containing both the anti-ferroelectric (zigzag) charge order and spin dimerization (spin gap). The phase transition is of the second kind, and the calculated physical quantities are as those one expects from the Landau theory. One of particular features of the phase diagram is that the inter-ladder spin-pseudospin coupling, responsible for the spin gap generation, also destroys the IMTF quantum critical point, resulting in the exponential behavior of $T_c$ in the region of Ising's coupling where the IMTF is always disordered. We conclude that our mean-field results give a qualitatively correct description of the phase transition in $NaV_2O_5$, while a more sophisticated analysis is warranted in order to take into account the thermal fluctuations and, probably, the proximity of the IMTF quantum critical point., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures

Raman light-scattering experiments in the antiferromagnetic phase of the Cu_2Te_2O_5(Br_(1-x)Cl_x)_2 compounds are analyzed in terms of a dimerized spin model for the tetrahedral Cu-clusters. It is shown that the longitudinal magnetic excitation in the pure Br system hybridizes with a localized singlet excitation due to the presence of a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropy term. The drastic change of the magnetic scattering intensities observed when a proportion of Br is replaced by Cl ions, is proposed to be caused by a change of the magnetic order parameter. Instead of being parallel/antiparallel with each other, the spins in the two pairs of spin-1/2 order perpendicular to each other, when the composition x is larger than about 0.25., Comment: EPL, in press

We present a comprehensive study of the coupled tetrahedra-compound Cu2Te2O5Br2 by theory and experiments in external magnetic fields. We report the observation of a longitudinal magnon in Raman scattering in the ordered state close to quantum criticality. We show that the excited tetrahedral-singlet sets the energy scale for the magnetic ordering temperature T_N. This energy is determined experimentally. The ordering temperature T_N has an inverse-log dependence on the coupling parameters near quantum criticality.

An overview of one- and two-dimensional quantum spin systems based on transition-metal oxides and halides of current interest is given, such as spin-Peierls, spin-dimer, geometrically frustrated and ladder systems. The most significant and outstanding contributions of magnetic light scattering to the understanding of these materials are discussed and compared to results of other spectroscopies and thermodynamic measurements., Comment: table of content, preface and introduction of the review article. For a full preprint version see http://www.peter-lemmens.de/habilitation.htm

We study the ionic Hubbard model at temperature T=0 within the mean-field approximation, and show that the charge gap does not close completely at the ionic-band insulator to antiferromagnetic insulator transition, contrary to previous expectations. Furthermore, we find an intermediate phase for on-site repulsions $U>U_c$ for different lattices, and calculate the phase diagram for the ionic Hubbard model with alternating U, corresponding to a Cu-O lattice., Comment: 5 pages with 7 figures; minor corrections

The study of quantum phase transitions, which are zero-temperature phase transitions between distinct states of matter, is of current interest in research since it allows for a description of low-temperature properties based on universal relations. Here we show that the crystal green dioptase Cu_6Si_6O_18 . 6H_2O, known to the ancient Roman as the gem of Venus, has a magnetic crystal structure, formed by the Cu(II) ions, which allows for a quantum phase transition between an antiferromagnetically ordered state and a quantum spin liquid., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, EPL, in press

Using the density matrix renormalization group technique, we evaluate the low-energy spectrum (ground state and first excited states) of the anisotropic antiferromagnetic spin-one-half chain under magnetic fields. We study both homogeneous longitudinal and transversal fields as well as the influence of a transversal staggered field on opening of a spin-gap. We find that only a staggered transversal field opens a substantial gap., Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures

Low energy Raman scattering of the s=1/2 spin tetrahedra system Cu_2Te_2O_5Br_2 is dominated by an excitation at 18 cm^{-1} corresponding to an energy E_S=0.6\Delta, with \Delta the spin gap of the compound. For elevated temperatures this mode shows a soft mode-like decrease in energy pointing to an instability of the system. The isostructural reference system Cu_2Te_2O_5Cl_2 with a presumably larger inter-tetrahedra coupling does not show such a low energy mode. Instead its excitation spectrum and thermodynamic properties are compatible with long range Neel-ordering. We discuss the observed effects in the context of quantum fluctuations and competing ground states., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, ISSP-Kashiwa 2001, Conference on Correlated Electrons

Thermodynamic experiments as well as Raman scattering have been used to study the magnetic instabilities in the spin-tetrahedra systems Cu_2Te_2O_5X_2, X=Cl and Br. While the phase transition observed in the Cl system at T_o=18.2 K is consistent with 3D AF ordering, the phase transition at T_o=11.3 K in the Br system has several unusual features. We propose an explanation in terms of weakly coupled tetrahedra with a singlet-triplet gap and low lying singlets., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

An iterative procedure for the explicit construction of the nontrivial subspace of all symmetry-adapted configurations with non-zero weight in the ground-state of the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model is developed on the basis of a symmetrized representation of the transition operators on a sequence of Bethe-Lattices of finite depth. The relation ship between these operators and the well known mapping of the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model onto an effective impurity problem coupled to a (self-consistent) bath on non-interacting electrons is given. As an application we calculate the properties of various Hubbard stars and give estimates for the half-filled Hubbard model with up to 0.1% accuracy., Comment: accepted for publication in EJP B

The effect of in-chain and off-chain substitutions on 1D spin fluctuations in the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO_3 has been studied using Raman scattering in order to understand the interplay between defect induced states, enhanced spin-spin correlations and the ground state of low dimensional systems. In-chain and off-chain substitutions quench the spin-Peierls state and induce 3D antiferromagnetic order at T\leq 5 K. Consequently a suppression of a 1D gap-induced mode as well as a constant intensity of a spinon continuum are observed at low temperatures. A 3D two-magnon density of states now gradually extends to higher temperatures T\leq 60K compared with pure CuGeO_3. This effect is more pronounced in the case of off-chain substitutions (Si) for which a N\'eel state occurs over a larger substitution range, starting at very low concentrations. Besides, additional low energy excitations are induced. These effects, i.e. the shift of a dimensional crossover to higher temperatures are due to an enhancement of the spin-spin correlations induced by a small amount of substitutions. The results are compared with recent Monte Carlo studies on substituted spin ladders, pointing to a similar instability of coupled, dimerized spin chains and spin ladders upon substitution., Comment: 14 pages, 6 eps figures, to be published in PRB

In a magnetic substance the gap in the Raman spectrum, Delta_R, is approximatively twice the value of the neutron scattering gap, Delta_S, if the the magnetic excitations (magnons) are only weakly interacting. But for CuGeO_3 the experimentally observed ratio Delta_R/Delta_S is approximatively 1.49-1.78, indicating attractive magnon-magnon interactions in the quasi-1D Spin-Peierls compound CuGe_3. We present numerical estimates for Delta_R/Delta_S from exact diagonalization studies for finite chains and find agreement with experiment for intermediate values of the frustration parameter alpha. An analysis of the numerical Raman intensity leads us to postulate a continuum of two-magnon bound states in the Spin-Peierls phase. We discuss in detail the numerical method used, the dependence of the results on the model parameters and a novel matrix-element effect due to the dimerization of the Raman-operator in the Spin-Peierls phase., Comment: submitted to PRB, Phys. Rev. B, in press