Variational two-particle density matrix calculation for the Hubbard model below half filling using spin-adapted lifting conditions.

The variational determination of the two-particle density matrix is an interesting, but not yet fully explored technique that allows us to obtain ground-state properties of a quantum many-body system without reference to an N-particle wave function. The one-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model has been studied before with this method, using standard two- and three-index conditions on the density matrix [J. R. Hammond et al., Phys. Rev. A 73, 062505 (2006)], while a more recent study explored so-called subsystem constraints [N. Shenvi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 213003 (2010)]. These studies reported good results even with only standard two-index conditions, but have always been limited to the half-filled lattice. In this Letter, we establish the fact that the two-index approach fails for other fillings. In this case, a subset of three-index conditions is absolutely needed to describe the correct physics in the strong-repulsion limit. We show that applying lifting conditions [J. R. Hammond et al., Phys. Rev. A 71, 062503 (2005)] is the most economical way to achieve this, while still avoiding the computationally much heavier three-index conditions. A further extension to spin-adapted lifting conditions leads to increased accuracy in the intermediate repulsion regime. At the same time, we establish the feasibility of such studies to the more complicated phase diagram in two-dimensional Hubbard models.