Liouville resolvent methods applied to highly correlated systems

In this dissertation we report on the application of the Liouville Operator Resolvent technique (LRM) to two hamiltonians used to model highly correlated systems: Falicov-Kimball and Anderson Lattice. We calculate specific heats, magnetic susceptibilities, thermal averages of physical operators, and energy bands. We demonstrate that the LRM is a viable method for investigating many body problems. For the Falicov-Kimball, an exact calculation of the atomic limit shows no sharp metal-insulator transition. A truncation approximation for the full hamiltonian has a smooth evolution from the atomic limit with the opening of a band for the conduction electrons. No phase transition was observed. A bose space calculation using the proper boson norm indicates that the conduction band induces a correlation between localized electrons on nearest-neighbor sites. It is not known if this effect is real or a by-product of the approximation. We applied the LRM to the Anderson Lattice and several of its limiting cases. In the limit of no hybridization, for both the symmetric and asymmetric (mixed-valence) parameter sets, we found that the thermodynamics could be described as competition between closely-lying energy levels. The effects that dominate are those that minimize the thermal average of the hamiltonian. A simple model is presented in which only hybridization between two localized orbitals is allowed. It shows that hybridization can give rise to mixed valence phenomena as the temperature approaches zero. For the full Anderson Lattice hybridization causes relatively small shifts in the occupation numbers of the localized and conduction electrons. However, these shifts can have dramatic effects on the physical properties as demonstrated by the magnetic susceptibilities. Band structures of the eigenenergies of the Liouville operator, for both parameter sets, reveal that low-lying excitations associated with some of the basis vector operators may split out from the fermi level and become significant at low temperatures. In addition, we report on progress toward extending the calculation to bose space using a commutator norm.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Department dc:contributor.department

Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1986

Author dc:creator

• Holtz, Susan Lady

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Bowen, Samuel P.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Tipsword, R. F.
• Williams, Clayton D.
• Zallen, Richard H.
• Zia, Royce K. P.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49795

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/49795