Interplay between the Pseudogap and Superconductivity in Doped Mott Insulators: a Cluster Dynamical Mean-Field Theory Study

We investigate the interplay between the pseudogap state and d-wave superconductivity in the two-dimensional doped Hubbard model by employing an eight-site cluster dynamical mean-field theory method. By tuning electron hopping parameters, the strong-coupling pseudogap in the two-dimensional Hubbard model can be either enhanced or suppressed in the doped Mott insulator regime. We find that in underdoped cases, the closing of pseudogap leads to a significant enhancement of superconductivity, indicating competition between the two in the underdoped regime. In contrast, at large dopings, suppressing the pseudogap is accompanied by a concurrent decrease in the superconducting transition temperature T_\rm c, which can be attributed to a reduction in antiferromagnetic correlations behind both the pseudogap and superconductivity. We elucidate this evolving relationship between pseudogap and superconductivity across different doping regimes.