We study the evolution of a Mott-Hubbard insulator into a correlated metal upon doping in the two-dimensional Hubbard model using the cellular dynamical mean-field theory. Short-range spin correlations create two additional bands apart from the familiar Hubbard bands in the spectral function. Even a tiny doping into this insulator causes a jump of the Fermi energy to one of these additional bands and an immediate momentum-dependent suppression of the spectral weight at this Fermi energy. The pseudogap is closely tied to the existence of these bands. This suggests a strong-coupling mechanism that arises from short-range spin correlations and large scattering rates for the pseudogap phenomenon seen in several cuprates.

• Received 27 January 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.165114