Role of the van Hove singularity in the quantum criticality of the Hubbard model

A quantum critical point is found in the phase diagram of the two-dimensional Hubbard model [Vidhyadhiraja et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 206407 (2009)]. It is due to the vanishing of the critical temperature associated with a phase-separation transition, and it separates the non-Fermi-liquid region from the Fermi liquid. Near the quantum critical point, the pairing is enhanced since the real part of the bare d-wave pairing susceptibility exhibits an algebraic divergence with decreasing temperature, replacing the logarithmic divergence found in a Fermi liquid [Yang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 047004 (2011)]. In this paper, we explore the single-particle and transport properties near the quantum critical point using high-quality estimates of the self-energy obtained by direct analytic continuation of the self-energy from the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method. We focus mainly on a van Hove singularity coming from the relatively flat dispersion that crosses the Fermi level near the quantum critical filling. The flat part of the dispersion orthogonal to the antinodal direction remains pinned near the Fermi level for a range of doping that increases when we include a negative next-near-neighbor hopping t' in the model. For comparison, we calculate the bare d-wave pairing susceptibility for noninteracting models with the usual two-dimensional tight-binding dispersion and a hypothetical quartic dispersion. We find that neither model yields a van Hove singularity that completely describes the critical algebraic behavior of the bare d-wave pairing susceptibility found in the numerical data. The resistivity, thermal conductivity, thermopower, and the Wiedemann-Franz law are examined in the Fermi liquid, marginal Fermi liquid, and pseudogap doping regions. A negative next-near-neighbor hopping t' increases the doping region with marginal Fermi liquid character. Both T and negative t' are relevant variables for the quantum critical point, and both the transport and the displacement of the van Hove singularity with filling suggest that they are qualitatively similar in their effect.