2
pair-kinetic energy due to the underlying Fermi-statistics
of the holes. Today these works stand out as being among
the few and first attempting a description starting from
the strong coupling antiferromagnetic (AFM) Mott limit
(large Hubbard-U). But it appears that the community
then focused more on approaches inspired by the weak-
coupling (small Hubbard-U) limit of the theoretical mod-
els [2], which more naturally led to the magnon-exchange
picture [15]. There, magnetic fluctuations provide the
glue between point-like charge carriers, and the theoreti-
cal framework shares more similarities with the successful
BCS theory of conventional superconductors. As almost
all ideas in the field, this picture has been debated [16].
Nevertheless, over time the idea that charge carriers
have a pronounced spatial structure was reclaimed sev-
eral times. In 1996, Laughlin and co-workers proposed a
phenomenological parton theory of doped holes, includ-
ing a confining linear string tension [17,18]; different
kinds of spatial strings, termed phase-strings, were intro-
duced in 1996 by Weng and co-workers [19,20], and their
effect on pairing was recently analyzed [21]; signatures for
the more traditional Sz-string fluctuations were reported
in large-scale DMRG simulations by White and Affleck in
2001 [22]; in 2007 Manousakis proposed a string-based in-
terpretation of one-hole ARPES spectra and in the same
work envisioned a pairing mechanism of holes constantly
exchanging fluctuating strings [23]; in 2013 exact numer-
ical simulations by Vidmar et al. in truncated bases,
closely related to the string picture, have also revealed
signatures for pairs with a rich spatial structure [24]; al-
ready in 2000 and 2001 large-scale Monte Carlo simula-
tions by Brunner et al. [25] and Mishchenko et al. [26]
have revealed long-lived vibrational excitations of indi-
vidual doped holes; and in the past few years, the present
authors have added new evidence for the existence of
long-lived rotational and vibrational string states of in-
dividual charge carriers [27–29]; Vibrational peaks have
also long been known to exist and recently further con-
firmed in linear-spin wave models of doped holes [30–33].
Finally, Hubbard-Mott excitons formed by a bound pair
of a doublon and a hole [34] have been proposed to have
a rich internal structure [35?].
In this article, we revisit the idea that mobile dopants,
the charge carriers in doped AFM Mott insulators, can
form bound states with a rich spatial structure. Specifi-
cally, we derive a semi-analytical theory of pairs of holes
connected by a confining string which fluctuates only
through the motion of the charges at its ends. Our ap-
proach is very similar in spirit to the much earlier work
by Shraiman and Siggia mentioned above [14]; in fact we
confirm several of their predictions and discuss them in
the context of three decades worth of new results includ-
ing from far advanced numerics. This includes one of
their most exciting – though often overlooked – predic-
tion that two fermionic holes can form infinitely heavy
pairs with a flat-band dispersion at very low energies.
In fact, we find that that these flat bands have d-wave
character. This result sheds new light on the wealth of
competing ordered states observed in cuprates and nu-
merically found in the closely related t−Jand Fermi-
Hubbard models [36–38].
Back-to-back with this article, we are publishing a sep-
arate work focusing on a numerical analysis of rotational
two-hole spectra in the t−Jzand t−Jmodels [39].
There we achieve full momentum resolution on extended
four-leg cylinders, and compare our numerical results to
the semi-analytic calculations performed in the present
article. The focus of the present article is on the semi-
analytical method itself, including its formal derivation.
Moreover, the calculations we perform here are applica-
ble in a larger class of models: as explained below, our
main assumption is that two partons on a square lattice
are connected by a rigid string Σ which creates a mem-
ory of the parton’s motion in the wavefunction. In the
case of mobile holes doped into an AFM Mott insula-
tor, the string directly encodes the prevalent spin-charge
correlations. But similar situations can be found in lat-
tice gauge theories in a strongly confining regime where
the dynamics of the corresponding electric field strings is
dominated by fast charge fluctuations.
The goal of our present work is primarily to understand
the properties of pairs of mobile dopants, i.e. their spatial
structure and energy spectrum, including their rotational
quantum numbers and effective mass. Previously much
emphasis has been on the question whether the dopants
pair up; i.e. about the magnitude and sign of the binding
energy
Ebdg = 2(E1−E0)−(E2−E0) (1)
where Enis the ground state energy in the presence of
ndopants. While we also view this as an important is-
sue, we argue that it is often not a well-suited question
for a semi-analytical approach, since it strongly depends
on details; e.g. addressing it requires precise knowledge
of the one-hole energy. In this article we take the view
that the structure of the paired state can be very differ-
ent from the structure of one-dopant states. Our goal
is to understand the former, and we leave the question
of how and when excited (or ground) states of pairs can
decay into individual single-dopant states to future anal-
ysis (only a brief discussion within our model will be pro-
vided). Moreover, we note that the question of pairing is
not identical to a question about the existence supercon-
ductivity: instead of condensing into a superconductor,
pairs of holes may also crystalize and form a pair-density
wave at finite doping [40].
Nevertheless, we will address the origins of pairing
within our semi-analytical framework. To this end we
identify competing effects which tend to increase or de-
crease the binding energy. Our results shed new light
on earlier predictions [13,14]: (i) fermionic statistics of
the dopants frustrates the pair’s kinetic energy, which
is unfavorable for pairing; (ii) the most detrimental ef-
fect for pairing comes from the hard-core property of
two dopants, which cannot occupy the same site; More-
over, we reveal (iii) a geometric spinon-chargon repul-