Interplay Between Charge, Spin, and Phonons in Low Dimensional Strongly Interacting Systems

Interacting one-dimensional electron systems are generally referred to as "Luttinger liquids", after the effective low-energy theory in which spin and charge behave as separate degrees of freedom with independent energy scales. The "spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid" describes a finite-temperature regime that is realized when the temperature is very small relative to the Fermi energy, but larger than the characteristic spin energy scale, and it is realized for instance in the strongly interacting Hubbard chain (with large U). Similar physics can take place in the ground-state, when a Luttinger Liquid is coupled to a spin bath, which effectively introduces a "spin temperature" through its entanglement with the spin degree of freedom. We show that the spin-incoherent state can be exactly written as a factorized wave-function, with a spin wave-function that can be described within a valence bond formalism. This enables us to calculate exact expressions for the momentum distribution function and the entanglement entropy. This picture holds not only for two antiferromagnetically coupled t--J chains, but also for the t--J-Kondo chain with strongly interacting conduction electrons. In chapter 3 we argue that this theory is quite universal and may describe a family of problems that could be dubbed "spin-incoherent".;This crossover to the spin-incoherent regime at finite temperatures can be understood by means of Ogata and Shiba's factorized wave-function, where charge and spin are totally decoupled, and assuming that the charge remains in the ground state, while the spin is thermally excited and at an effective "spin temperature". In chapter 4 we use the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method (tDMRG) to calculate the dynamical contributions of the spin, to reconstruct the single-particle spectral function of the electrons. The crossover is characterized by a redistribution of spectral weight both in frequency and momentum, with an apparent shift by kF of the minimum of the dispersion.;In chapter 5, we calculate the spectral function of the one-dimensional Hubbard-Holstein model using the tDMRG, focusing on the regime of large local Coulomb repulsion, and away from electronic half-filling. We argue that, from weak to intermediate electron-phonon coupling, phonons interact only with the electronic charge, and not with the spin degrees of freedom. For strong electron-phonon interaction, spinon and holon bands are not discernible anymore and the system is well described by a spinless polaronic liquid. In this regime, we observe multiple peaks in the spectrum with an energy separation corresponding to the energy of the lattice vibrations (i.e. phonons). We support the numerical results by introducing a well controlled analytical approach based on Ogata-Shiba's factorized wave-function, showing that the spectrum can be understood as a convolution of three contributions, originating from charge, spin, and lattice sectors. We recognize and interpret these signatures in the spectral properties and discuss the experimental implications.