Linear-response dynamics from the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation

Within a Lagrangian formalism, we derive the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation for general multi-band Hubbard models. Our approach explicitly incorporates the coupling between time-dependent variational parameters and a time-dependent density matrix from which we obtain dynamical correlation functions in the linear-response regime. Our results are illustrated for the one-band model where we show that the interacting system can be mapped to an effective problem of fermionic quasiparticles coupled to 'doublon' (double occupancy) bosonic fluctuations. The latter have an energy on the scale of the on-site Hubbard repulsion U in the dilute limit but become soft at the Brinkman-Rice transition, which is shown to be related to an emerging conservation law of doublon charge and the associated gauge invariance. Coupling with the boson mode produces a structure in the charge response and we find that a similar structure appears in dynamical mean-field theory.