Linked-cluster expansion around the atomic limit of the Hubbard model

We develop a perturbation expansion in the intersite hopping around the atomic limit of the Hubbard model. It is valid for arbitrary finite temperatures and interaction strengths. Diagrammatic rules that determine the grand-canonical potential and the Green's functions are derived. They reduce the calculation of any finite-order contribution to simple algebra. This opens the way for series extrapolations from computer-aided high-finite-order evaluations. Discrepancies in earlier expansions around the atomic limit are clarified. The present expansion scheme involves only connected diagrams with unrestricted lattice sums. This allows one to perform a vertex renormalization as for the linked-cluster expansion of the Ising model. The renormalized perturbation expansion can be used to construct self-consistent approximations which are automatically exact in the atomic limit. In the limit of high lattice dimensions, only fully two-particle reducible embeddings of diagrams on the lattice contribute. The single-particle properties of the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model reduce to those of independent tight-binding fermions hopping between dressed sites.