578 Ch.

10 The Correlated Metallic State

just as we found in (10.7).

(10.73) predicts a perfectly Brinkman-Rice-type divergence - as-
suming that the metallic solution can be continued up to U + Ucr.
Let us, however, consider a later QMC result (Fig. 10.15). For most of
the regime U < Uc, the solution seems to be well-described by (10.73).
However, in an interval about U = Ucr, m/m*follows different branches,
according to whether U is decreased or increased. This kind of hysteresis
indicates a first-order transition.

Semicircular DOS
N=1.0 T=0.025Bandwidth=2
1 .o
0m/m* increasing U
-Xch,,(q=O,T) Increasing U
0m/m* Decreasing U
Decreasing U
Xchrrge(q=O,T)

0.5

0.0
0.0 1 .o 2.0 3.0

Figure 10.15: QMC results for the UIW-dependence of m/m' (data points) and
the charge compressibility (continuous line) for the DOS (10.72). The presence of
hysteresis indicates a weakly first-order transition. (Unpublished results, by courtesy
of M. Jarrell).

The question of the order of the Mott transition is truly delicate one
1130, 1231 and we would not like to pass judgement on the issue here.
Equation (10.73) describes how the transition point is approached from
the metallic side, and it points to an inherent instability: there is a