Hosted by: Wenhu Xu

Band theory and the BCS theory of superconductivity are two pillars of the quantum theory of solids. High-temperature superconductors belong to a family of materials where both of these, band theory and BCS, fail. Layered organic materials of the BEDT family are another example of materials that are hard to understand within conventional approaches. The root cause of these failures can be traced to strong electronic repulsion. I will start from the simplest model that takes into account the competition between kinetic and potential energy, the Hubbard model. I will show how cluster generalizations of dynamical mean-field theory for this model shed light on these problems. The interaction-induced metal-insulator transition (Mott transition) can serve as an organizing principle for the phase diagrams.