Strongly correlated superconductivity: A plaquette dynamical mean-field theory study

We use cluster dynamical mean-field theory to study the simplest models of correlated electrons, the Hubbard model and the t-J model. We use a plaquette embedded in a medium as a reference frame to compute and interpret the physical properties of these models. We study various observables such as electronic lifetimes, one electron spectra, optical conductivities, superconducting stiffness, and the spin response in both the normal and the superconducting state in terms of correlation functions of the embedded cluster. We find that the shortest electron lifetime occurs near optimal doping where the superconducting critical temperature is maximal. A second critical doping connected to the change of topology of the Fermi surface is also identified. The mean-field theory provides a simple physical picture of three doping regimes, the underdoped, the overdoped, and the optimally doped regime, in terms of the physics of the quantum plaquette impurity model. We compare the plaquette dynamical mean-field theory results with earlier resonating valence bond mean-field theories, noting the improved description of the momentum space anisotropy of the normal state properties and the doping dependence of the coefficient of the linear temperature dependence of the superfluid density in the superconducting state.