Binding of holes and the pair spectral function in thet-Jmodel

Clusters of the two-dimensional t-J model with two holes and up to 26 sites are diagonalized using a Lanczos algorithm. The behavior of the binding energy with system size suggests the existence of a finite critical value of J above which binding occurs in the bulk. Only the d-wave pair-field operator acting on the Heisenberg ground state has a finite overlap with the two-hole ground state for all the clusters considered. The related spectral function associated with the propagation of a d-wave (singlet) pair of holes in the antiferromagnetic background is calculated. The quasiparticle peak at the bottom of the spectrum as well as some structure appearing above the peak survive with increasing cluster size. Although no simple scaling law was found for the quasiparticle weight the data strongly suggest that this weight is finite in the bulk limit and is roughly proportional to the antiferromagnetic coupling J (for J1).