High-temperature pair density waves from the motion of doublons and holons

Lattice commensurate pair density waves as observed in the cuprates are prototyped by intertwining of period-4 charge order with period-8 modulation of Cooper pairs. We show that the simplest such PDW state emerges at half-filling from the unitary evolution of Hubbard-commuting models when the electronic quasiparticle bandwidth of the Mott insulator (MI) supersedes the Hubbard (U) interaction strength. Intermediate values of U (5-10) favor the MI near half-filling, but PDWs emerge beyond a critical threshold of doping because of the effective enhancement of bandwidth. Hubbard-commuting kinetics, comprising doublon-singlon and holon-singlon exchange operations, naturally explain the 2-1-0-1 root configuration of charge. Asymmetry of doublon-holon motion manifests as a three-body operation, engendering period-doubling of spin and Cooper-pair fields at temperatures above the spin(singlon)-exchange scale which favors uniform condensation. PDW quasiparticle dispersion is distinctively shaped by non-standard form factors reflecting the real-space structure of doublon and holon motion cast in terms of Wick-symmetrized electronic fields. With bandwidth-scale operations on short-range bonds, Hubbard-commuting models at intermediate coupling satisfy the established non-monotonicity criterion [1] for energetic favorability of PDWs, while demonstrating that in physical terms, PDWs are the charged and itinerant kin of Mott insulators.

[1] Wu, Yi-Ming, et al. “Pair Density Wave Order from Electron Repulsion.” PRL,130, 2, Jan. 2023,