Orbital order in degenerate Hubbard models : A variational study

We use the Gutzwiller variational many-body theory to investigate the stability of orbitally ordered states in a two-band Hubbard-model without spin degrees of freedom. Our results differ significantly from earlier Hartree-Fock calculations for this model. The Hartree-Fock phase diagram displays a large variety of orbital orders. In contrast, in the Gutzwiller approach orbital order only appears for densities in a narrow region around half filling.