Energy spectrum analysis and finite temperature properties of the Falicov-Kimball model with Hund coupling at half filling

The Falicov-Kimball model supplemented with the Ising-type Hund coupling describes charge and magnetic order induced by on-site, charge-, and spin-dependent interactions between itinerant electrons and localized ions. Motivated by a discovery of the rich structure of ground-state phase diagrams containing various charge and magnetic superstructures, we analyze the energy spectrum and determine numerically finite temperature properties of the model on the square 4×4 cluster at half filling. For the density of magnetic ions equal to 1 and 1/2 and not too small coupling constants we show that many-electron collective excitations derived from changes in positions of the ions or inversions their spins have much lower energy than single-electron excitations. From an analysis of the excitation spectrum structure we derive effective interactions between the ions. When the coupling constants are large enough the interactions reduce to two-body forces between ions occupying the nearest-neighboring sites. Finite-temperature characteristics and temperatures of transformation from charge or magnetically ordered to disordered phases are determined in the wide range of the interaction couplings.