10.

1 The Reduced Fermi Step 529

with electrons (Fig. 10.1). We can rationalize the latter finding by

saying that increasing localization in real space must be accompanied
by delocalization in the reciprocal space.

nk t
1

t:
Figure 10.1: The band state occupation number nk of an interacting Fermi system
(thick lines) still shows a discontinuity at the Fermi wave vector k ~ but
, its height
is reduced to q < 1. kez is the Brillouin zone boundary. The Fermi step of the
non-interacting system is shown with dashed lines.

It can be argued that the best2 “order parameter” of the metal-

lic, Fermi-liquid state is the height of the Fermi step. In our present
approximation, the size of the Fermi step is given by (10.2). The be-
haviour is shown in Fig. 10.2. For non-interacting electrons, q = 1; in
an interacting system, q < 1. As long as there is a finite Fermi step,
however small, we still speak of a Fermi liquid. At the Brinkman-Rice
transition q +=0, and ( f i k ) becomes flat. The finding ( f i k ) = 1/2 for all
k if U > U,,,is an extreme realization of the requirement that in an
insulator, ( f i k ) should be a smooth function of k.
We have seen two plots showing the behaviour on the metallic side
of the Brinkman-Rice transition: the left panel of Fig. 9.3 and Fig.
10.2. At the level of the Gutzwiller approximation, these have the same
status (actually, eqn. (C.19) shows that for n = 1, q n d when n d be-
N

comes small). However, if we look beyond the present simple treatment

and recall what we understand about the Hubbard model from other
‘Within the scope of our presentation. It has been pointed out [278]that it is
more satisfactory t o measure the metallic character by the sensitivity to changes in
boundary conditions.