Spirals and spin bags: A link between the weak- and the strong-coupling limits of the Hubbard model

Abstract

We reconsider some of the previous studies of the interactions between the holes and the spin background in the Hubbard model in the small-doping limit. We show that the hole-hole interaction due to the transverse magnetization fluctuations (i.e., spin waves) is finite at arbitrarily small hole density. It may be comparable to the coupling due to the longitudinal magnetization fluctuations (which are the essence of the ‘‘spin-bag’’ mechanism of Schrieffer, Wen, and Zhang). This suggests that the two couplings should be considered simultaneously when studying the phase diagram of the lightly doped quantum antiferromagnets at the values of U/t relevant to the high-${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$ superconducting materials. We also show that in the large-(U/t) limit the Hubbard-model expressions for the coupling of holes reduce to those given by Shraiman and Siggia for the t-J model. This provides a link between the weak- and the strong-coupling theories of the doped quantum antiferromagnets, in the small-doping limit.