Single-particle excitations in narrow energy bands

Abstract

The Hubbard hamiltonian is analysed by means of Gutzwiller's variational scheme for both the nondegenerate and the degenerate band models. The single-particle excitations in the correlated ground state, which is determined by a balance between the electron hopping energy and the intra-atomic interaction energy, are investigated for arbitrary electron density and arbitrary correlation strength. It is found that the single-particle excitation energies forming a quasi-energy band. The centre of gravity of the quasi band is shifted from that of the bare band, and the bulk part of the density of states function for the quasi particles is narrowed by the correlation effect. Both the shift and the narrowing are spin-dependent. In the limit of strong correlation, our results agree with those obtained by Harris and Lange (1967) and Roth (1969).