10.

6 Discussion and Outlook 579

Ucr where m* would diverge, thus we could not continue the metallic
solution to U > Ucr. The Brinkman-Rice scenario for the MIT predicts
a critical-point transition: m* diverges as U + Ucr - 0, and the gap
+
vanishes continuously as U + Ucr 0. A continuous transition (in fact,
a third-order transition) was also the outcome of the exact solution
of the l/r-model. However, we seem to have no convincing argument
to exclude that the Mott transition is generically first-order. Let us
recall our discussion in Sec. 10.6.2: we understood that the insulating
ground state is not a distorted (projected) metallic state but an entirely
different state31. Thus the (T = 0) Mott transition is basically a level-
crossing transition, where the energies of two completely different many-
electron states become equal: EM = EPI (M: metal, PI: paramagnetic
insulator). There is a metallic ground state which, taken in itself, would
become unstable at an U + U z - 0 where m* + 00. There is also a
localized-moment paramagnetic insulating ground state which may also
+
become inherently unstable at some U + UcpI! 0 because it cannot
sustain the gap any more. If we find a mechanism to impose U z = Up' cr ,
the transition is continuous. Otherwise, the transition point need not
coincide with the inherent instability of either phase but is determined
by EM(Utr) = EPI(Utr).
The idea of level-crossing can be extended to finite temperatures
where the corresponding free energies cross. Actually, this is the only
way to have a phase transition without symmetry breaking. Let us
remember that at T # 0 even a gapped system has a finite conductivity,
thus the contrast between a metal and an insulator becomes blurred,
and the transition has to be defined in thermodynamic terms.
Let us notice that Fig 10.16 shows a finite-temperature phase transi-
tion. Recalling that (in Sec. 5.5) we presented a loose argument showing
that the spin entropy term gives an, added reason for the MIT to be of
first order at finite T , we may be wondering whether the discontinuous
behaviour at T = 0.025W would not be compatible with a second-order
transition at T = 0. The ground state phase transition is not directly
accessible to the QMC method, and it is an open question whether the

31Here we are speaking about a non-magnetic Mott insulator. If the metal-

insulator transition coincides with a magnetic ordering transition, the SDW picture
may provide a valid unified description of metallic and insulating states.