Hole and electron dynamics in a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet: Interplay of frustration and spin fluctuations

Single-particle dynamics in the 120 degrees ordered antiferromagnetic state of the triangular-lattice Hubbard model is studied using a physically transparent fluctuation approach in terms of multiple magnon emission and absorption processes within the noncrossing approximation. Hole and electron spectral features are evaluated at intermediate U, and analyzed in terms of a competition between the frustration-induced direct hopping and the virtual hopping. Finite U-induced competing interactions and frustration effects contributing through the magnon dispersion are also discussed. Finite contribution to self-energy correction from long-wavelength (Goldstone) modes, together with the high density of electron scattering states in the narrow, sharp peak in the upper band, result in strong fermion-magnon scattering leading to pronounced incoherent behavior in the electron dynamics. The fluctuation-induced first-order metal-insulator transition due to vanishing band gap is also discussed.