Recent refinements of analytical and numerical methods have improved our understanding of the ground-state phase diagram of the two-dimensional (2D) Hubbard model. Here we focus on variational approaches, but comparisons with both Quantum Cluster and Gaussian Monte Carlo methods are also made. Our own ansatz leads to an antiferromagnetic ground state at half filling with a slightly reduced staggered order parameter (as compared to simple mean-field theory). Away from half filling, we find d-wave superconductivity, but confined to densities where the Fermi surface passes through the antiferromagnetic zone boundary (if hopping between both nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour sites is considered). Our results agree surprisingly well with recent numerical studies using the Quantum Cluster method. An interesting trend is found by comparing gap parameters ∆ (antiferromagnetic or superconducting) obtained with different variational wave functions. ∆ varies by an order of magnitude and thus cannot be taken as a characteristic energy scale. In contrast, the order parameter is much less sensitive to the degree of sophistication of the variational schemes, at least at and near half filling.

We derive an effective spin Hamiltonian for the one-dimensional half-filled asymmetric ionic Hubbard model with alternating on-site interaction in the limit of strong repulsion. It is shown that the effective Hamiltonian is that of a spin S = 1/2 anisotropic XXZ Heisenberg chain with alternating next-nearest-neighbor and three-spin couplings in the presence of a uniform and a staggered magnetic field.