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arXiv:0811.2218 · Physical Review Letters

Mott Transition between a Spin-Liquid Insulator and a Metal in Three Dimensions

Daniel K. Podolsky, Arun Paramekanti, Yong Baek Kim, T. Senthil

Published May 6, 2009• 89 citations
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Abstract

We study a bandwidth controlled Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) from a Fermi-liquid metal to a quantum spin-liquid insulator in three dimensions. Using a slave rotor approach including gauge fluctuations, we obtain a continuous MIT and discuss finite temperature crossovers in its vicinity. We show that the specific heat C approximately Tlnln(1/T) at the MIT and that the metallic state near the MIT should exhibit a "conductivity minimum" as a function of temperature. We suggest Na4Ir3O8 as a candidate to test our predictions and compute its electron spectral function at the MIT.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.102.186401

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We study a bandwidth controlled Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) from a Fermi-liquid metal to a quantum spin-liquid insulator in three dimensions. Using a slave rotor approach including gauge fluctuations, we obtain a continuous MIT and discuss finite temperature crossovers in its vicinity. We show that the specific heat C approximately Tlnln(1/T) at the MIT and that the metallic state near the MIT should exhibit a "conductivity minimum" as a function of temperature. We suggest Na4Ir3O8 as a candidate to test our predictions and compute its electron spectral function at the MIT.
We reinvestigate the bandwidth-control and doping-control Mott transitions (BCMT and DCMT) from a spin liquid Mott insulator to a Fermi liquid metal based on the slave-rotor representation of the Hubbard model [Florens and Georges, Phys. Rev. B 66, 165111 (2002); 70, 035114 (2004)] where the Mott transitions are described by softening of bosonic collective excitations. We find that the nature of the insulating phase away from half filling is different from that of half filling in the respect that a charge density wave coexists with a topological order (spin liquid) away from half filling because the condensation of vortices generically breaks translational symmetry in the presence of ``dual magnetic fields'' resulting from hole doping while the topological order remains stable owing to gapless excitations near the Fermi surface. Performing a renormalization group analysis, we discuss the role of dissipative gauge fluctuations due to the Fermi surface in both the BCMT and the DCMT.
We present a theoretical approach to describing the Mott transition of electrons on a two-dimensional lattice that begins with the low-energy effective theory of the Fermi liquid. The approach to the Mott transition must be characterized by the suppression of density and current fluctuations that correspond to specific shape deformations of the Fermi surface. We explore the nature of the Mott insulator and the corresponding Mott transition when these shape fluctuations of the Fermi surface are suppressed without making any a priori assumptions about other Fermi surface shape fluctuations. Building on insights from the theory of the Mott transition of bosons, we implement this suppression by identifying and condensing vortex degrees of freedom in the phase of the low-energy electron operator. We show that the resulting Mott insulator is a quantum spin liquid with a spinon Fermi surface coupled to a U(1)U(1)U(1) gauge field, which is usually described within a slave particle formulation. Our approach thus provides a coarse-grained treatment of the Mott transition and the proximate spin liquid that is nevertheless equivalent to the standard slave particle construction. This alternate point of view provides further insight into the novel physics of the Mott transition and the spin liquid state that is potentially useful. We describe a generalization that suppresses spin antisymmetric fluctuations of the Fermi surface that leads to a spin-gapped charge metal previously also discussed in terms of slave particle constructions.
The unanalytical feature of the Mott–Hubbard metal-insulator transition in infinite dimensions is studied by using a modified self-consistency scheme in the framework of dynamical mean-field theory. For a specific low temperature T=0.0025W (W: half bandwidth), the "Z"-shaped or "S"-shaped curves for double occupancy D, energy per lattice site E, and the quasi-particle weight Z are obtained as functions of U. Direct observation shows that the Fermi-liquid phase changes to the insulating phase through a non-Fermi-liquid phase at the unstable level. Based on our results, a scenario of zero temperature MIT is proposed. The phase diagram for MIT on the T–D plane is also presented.
Resorting to a recently developed theoretical device called dimensional regularization for quantum criticality with a Fermi surface, we examine a metal-insulator quantum phase transition from a Landau's Fermi-liquid state to a U(1) spin-liquid phase with a spinon Fermi surface in two dimensions. Unfortunately, we fail to approach the spin-liquid Mott quantum critical point from the U(1) spin-liquid state within the dimensional regularization technique. Self-interactions between charge fluctuations called holons are not screened, which shows a run-away renormalization group flow, interpreted as holons remain gapped. This leads us to consider another fixed point, where the spinon Fermi surface can be destabilized across the Mott transition. Based on this conjecture, we reveal the nature of the spin-liquid Mott quantum critical point: Dimensional reduction to one dimension occurs for spin dynamics described by spinons. As a result, Landau damping for both spin and charge dynamics disappear in the vicinity of the Mott quantum critical point. When the flavor number of holons is over its critical value, an interacting fixed point appears to be identified with an inverted XYXYXY universality class, controlled within the dimensional regularization technique. On the other hand, a fluctuation-driven first order metal-insulator transition results when it is below the critical number. We propose that the destabilization of a spinon Fermi surface and the emergence of one-dimensional spin dynamics near the spin-liquid Mott quantum critical point can be checked out by spin susceptibility with a 2kF2{k}_{F}2kF​ transfer momentum, where kF{k}_{F}kF​ is a Fermi momentum in the U(1) spin-liquid state: The absence of Landau damping in U(1) gauge fluctuations gives rise to a divergent behavior at zero temperature while it vanishes in the presence of a spinon Fermi surface.
We study in this paper quantum spin liquid states (QSLs) at the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition. Assuming that the low-energy excitations in the QSLs are labeled by ``spinon'' occupation numbers with the same Fermi surface structure as in the corresponding metal (Fermi-liquid) side, we propose a phenomenological Landau-like low-energy theory for the QSLs and show that the usual U(1)U(1)U(1) QSLs is a representative member of this class of spin liquids. Based on our effective low-energy theory, an alternative picture to the Brinkman-Rice picture of the Mott metal-insulator transition is proposed. The charge, spin, and thermal responses of QSLs are discussed under such a phenomenology.
We discuss the universal-transport signatures near a zero-temperature continuous Mott transition between a Fermi liquid and a quantum spin liquid in two spatial dimensions. The correlation-driven transition occurs at fixed filling and involves fractionalization of the electron: upon entering the spin liquid, a Fermi surface of neutral spinons coupled to an internal gauge field emerges. We present a controlled calculation of the value of the zero-temperature universal resistivity jump predicted to occur at the transition. More generally, the behavior of the universal scaling function that collapses the temperature- and pressure-dependent resistivity is derived, and is shown to bear a strong imprint of the emergent gauge fluctuations. We further predict a universal jump of the thermal conductivity across the Mott transition, which derives from the breaking of conformal invariance by the damped gauge field, and leads to a violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the quantum critical region. A connection to the quasitriangular organic salts is made, where such a transition might occur. Finally, we present some transport results for the pure rotor O(N)O(N)O(N) conformal field theory.