4.

7 Hubbard Subbands 181

V,, (Fig. 4.10, left). We have found a second-order metal-insulator

transition at U = Ucr.
The idea of a correlation-driven metal-insulator transition was in-
troduced in 1949 in a seminal paper by Mott [292].However, he envis-
aged a first-order transition. Using our picture, the argument can be
rephrased as follows. For a slight overlap between the upper and lower
subbands, we would have a small concentration dn of “electrons” in the

screening length XTF -

upper subband and “holes” in the lower subbandZ3.The Thomas-Fermi
l/& being much larger than the radius text
of the electron-hole bound state (the exciton radius), the few carriers
combine into bound pairs, and the supposedly weakly metallic system
is, in fact, not a metal at all but an (excitonic) insulator. The transition

is large enough so that ATF -

to the metallic state occurs abruptly when the overlap of the subbands
In the original sense, the Mott tran-
sition is a discontinuous transition from an insulator to a fully developed
metallic state with a largish density of charge carriers (Fig. 4.10, right).

Figure 4.10: Schematic representation of the metal-insulator transition without,

and with, the inclusion of screening. Left: For the Hubbard model, ~ ( c F approaches
)
0 gradually as the Hubbard subbands separate. Right: the inclusion of long-range
Coulomb forces gives rise to a first-order Mott-transition (6n is the density of charge
carriers).

23Ftememberthat it is far from being obvious that this “semiconductor language”

can be used for the Hubbard subbands (Mott’s original argument was phrased differ-
ently). We are using this formulation in order to connect to the previous discussion.