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Towards effective models for low-dimensional cuprates: From ground-state Hamiltonian reconstruction to spectral functions

Hannah Lange1,2,3, Tizian Blatz1,3, Ulrich Schollwöck1,3, Sebastian Paeckel1,3, and Annabelle Bohrdt1,3

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 075153 – Published 24 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n2ql-32n3

Abstract

Understanding which minimal effective model captures the essential physics of cuprates is a key step towards unraveling the mechanism behind high-Tc superconductivity. Recent measurements of the dynamical spin structure factor (DSF) in cuprate ladder compounds have indicated the presence of an additional, attractive term in the single-band Hubbard model, potentially originating from electron-phonon interactions. Here, we demonstrate that similar DSF features can also be captured by t−J descriptions with a smaller attractive term. Motivated by this observation, we systematically investigate the strength and origin of different contributions to the single-band Hamiltonians by downfolding either from the three-band Emery model or the electron-phonon coupled Hubbard-Holstein model. For one-dimensional systems, we find that the extended versions of both single-band descriptions can reproduce the experimentally observed DSF signatures. Finally, we extend our analysis to two dimensions by comparing two-hole correlation functions for the different single-band models. Our results provide new insights into the long-standing question of which single-band Hamiltonian can capture the essential physics of cuprates.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 075153– Published 24 February, 2026
  • Received 18 September 2025
  • Revised 21 January 2026
  • Accepted 26 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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