A metal can be driven to an insulating phase through distinct mechanisms. A possible way is via the Coulomb interaction, which then defines the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT). Another possibility is the MIT driven by disorder, the so-called Anderson MIT. Here we analyze interacting particles in disordered Hubbard chains---thus comprising the Mott-Anderson physics---by investigating the ground-state entanglement with density functional theory. The localization signature on entanglement is found to be a decreasing on the entanglement degree in comparison to the clean (without interaction and disorder) case, with local minima at certain critical densities. Individually, the Mott (Anderson) MIT has a single critical density whose minimum entanglement decreases as the interaction (disorder) enhances. While in the Mott MIT entanglement saturates at finite values, characterizing partial localization, in the Anderson MIT the system reaches full localization, with zero entanglement, for sufficiently strong disorder. In the combined Mott-Anderson MIT, we find three critical densities referring to local minima on entanglement. One of them is the same as for the Anderson MIT, but now the presence of interaction requires a stronger disorder potential to induce full localization. A second critical density is related to the Mott MIT, but due to disorder it is displaced by a factor proportional to the concentration of impurities. The third local minimum on entanglement is unique to the concomitant presence of disorder and interaction, found to be related to an effective density phenomenon, thus referred to as a Mott-like MIT. Since entanglement has been intrinsically connected to the magnetic susceptibility---a quantity promptly available in cold-atom experiments---our detailed numerical description might be useful for the experimental investigation of the Mott-Anderson MIT.
A metal can be driven to an insulating phase through distinct mechanisms. A possible way is via the Coulomb interaction, which then defines the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT). Another possibility is the MIT driven by disorder, the so-called Anderson MIT. Here we analyze interacting particles in disordered Hubbard chains---thus comprising the Mott-Anderson physics---by investigating the ground-state entanglement with density functional theory. The localization signature on entanglement is found to be a decreasing on the entanglement degree in comparison to the clean (without interaction and disorder) case, with local minima at certain critical densities. Individually, the Mott (Anderson) MIT has a single critical density whose minimum entanglement decreases as the interaction (disorder) enhances. While in the Mott MIT entanglement saturates at finite values, characterizing partial localization, in the Anderson MIT the system reaches full localization, with zero entanglement, for sufficiently strong disorder. In the combined Mott-Anderson MIT, we find three critical densities referring to local minima on entanglement. One of them is the same as for the Anderson MIT, but now the presence of interaction requires a stronger disorder potential to induce full localization. A second critical density is related to the Mott MIT, but due to disorder it is displaced by a factor proportional to the concentration of impurities. The third local minimum on entanglement is unique to the concomitant presence of disorder and interaction, found to be related to an effective density phenomenon, thus referred to as a Mott-like MIT. Since entanglement has been intrinsically connected to the magnetic susceptibility---a quantity promptly available in cold-atom experiments---our detailed numerical description might be useful for the experimental investigation of the Mott-Anderson MIT.
The interplay between Mott and Anderson routes to localization in disordered interacting systems gives rise to different transitions and transport regimes. Here, we investigate the phase diagram at finite temperatures using dynamical mean-field theory combined with typical medium theory, which is an effective theory of the Mott-Anderson metal-insulator transition. We mainly focus on the properties of the coexistence region associated with the Mott phase transition. For weak disorder, the coexistence region is found to be similar to that in the clean case. However, as we increase disorder, Anderson localization effects are responsible for shrinking the coexistence region, and at sufficiently strong disorder (approximately equal to twice the bare bandwidth) it drastically narrows, the critical temperature Tc abruptly goes to zero, and we observe a phase transition in the absence of a coexistence of the metallic and insulating phases. In this regime, the effects of interaction and disorder are found to be of comparable importance for charge localization.
The Mott and the Anderson routes to localization have long been recognized as the two basic processes that can drive the metal-insulator transition (MIT).Theories separately describing each of these mechanisms were discussed long ago, but an accepted approach that can include both has remained elusive.The lack of any obvious static symmetry distinguishing the metal from the insulator poses another fundamental problem, since an appropriate static order parameter cannot be easily found.More recent work, however, has revisited the original arguments of Anderson and Mott, which stressed that the key diference between the metal end the insulator lies in the dynamics of the electron.This physical picture has suggested that the "typical" (geometrically averaged) escape rate τ -1 typ = exp ln τ -1 esc from a given lattice site should be regarded as the proper dynamical order parameter for the MIT, one that can naturally describe both the Anderson and the Mott mechanism for localization.This article provides an overview of the recent results obtained from the corresponding Typical-Medium Theory, which provided new insight into the the two-fluid character of the Mott-Anderson transition. I. FROM METAL TO INSULATOR: A NEW PERSPECTIVETo understand many, if not most exotic new materials, one has to tackle the difficult problem of understanding the metal-insulator quantum phase transition, as driven by the combined effects of strong electronic correlations and disorder.Traditional approaches to the problem, which emerged in the early 1980s, have focused on examining the perturbative effects of disorder within the Fermi liquid framework.Despite their mathematical elegance, these theories, unfortunately, prove ill-suited to describe several key physical processes, such as tendency to local magnetic moment formation and the approach to the Mott insulating state.In addition, such weak-coupling theories cannot easily describe strongly inhomogeneous phases, with behavior often dominated by broad distributions and rare disorder configurations.This new insight, which is largely driven by experimental advances, seems to suggest that an alternative theoretical picture may provide a better starting point.In this article we describe recent advances based on a new theoretical method, which offers a complementary perspective to the conventional weak-coupling theories.By revisiting the original ides of Anderson and Mott, it examines the typical escape rate from a given site as the fundamental dynamical order parameter to distinguish between a metal and an insulator.This article describes the corresponding Typical-Medium Theory (TMT) and discusses some of its recent results and potential applications.We fist discuss discuss, in some detail, several experimental and theoretical clues suggesting that a new theoretical paradigm is needed.The formulation of TMT for Anderson localization of noninteracting electrons is then discussed, with emphasis on available analytical results.Finally, we review recent progress in applying TMT to the Mott-Anderson transition for disordered Hubbard models, and discuss resulting the two-fluid behavior at the critical point. II. THEORETICAL CHALLENGES: BEYOND CINDERELLA'S SLIPPER?The existence of a sharp metal-insulator transition at T = 0 has been appreciated for many years [1].Experiments on many systems indeed have demonstrated that a well defined critical carrier concentration can easily be identified.On the theoretical side, ambiguities on how to describe or even think of the metal-insulator transition have made it difficult to directly address the nature of the critical region.In practice, one often employs the theoretical tools that are available, even if possibly inappropriate.Even worse, one often focuses on those systems and phenomena that fit an available theoretical mold, ignoring and brushing aside precisely those features that seem difficult to understand.This "Cinderella's slipper" approach is exactly what one should not do; unfortunately it happens all too often.A cure is, of course, given by soberly confronting the experimental reality: what seems paradoxical at first sight often proves to be the first clue to the solution.A. Traditional approaches to disordered interacting electrons
Interacting fermions in the presence of disorder pose one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics, primarily due to the absence of accurate numerical tools. Our investigation delves into the intricate interplay between interaction-induced Mott insulation and disorder-driven Anderson localization in the Hubbard model subjected to a random potential. On the Cayley tree, the application of statistical dynamical mean-field theory proves adept at discerning among a metal and the two distinct insulators, Anderson or Mott. Our comprehensive analysis, accounting for subtle yet potent finite-size effects and fluctuations, yields a noteworthy finding: in the presence of disorder, we consistently observe an intervening Anderson-localized regime between the metallic and Mott insulator states. This observation intriguingly mirrors scenarios witnessed in dirty Bosons, where an insulating Bose glass phase consistently emerges between the superfluid and Mott phases.
The DOS, the dynamic (optical) conductivity, and the phase diagram of a strongly correlated and strongly disordered paramagnetic Anderson-Hubbard model are analyzed within the generalized dynamical mean field theory (DMFT + Σ approximation). Strong correlations are taken into account by the DMFT, and disorder is taken into account via an appropriate generalization of the self-consistent theory of localization. The DMFT effective single-impurity problem is solved by a numerical renormalization group (NRG); we consider the three-dimensional system with a semielliptic DOS. The correlated metal, Mott insulator, and correlated Anderson insulator phases are identified via the evolution of the DOS and dynamic conductivity, demonstrating both the Mott-Hubbard and Anderson metal-insulator transition and allowing the construction of the complete zero-temperature phase diagram of the Anderson-Hubbard model. Rather unusual is the possibility of a disorder-induced Mott insulator-to-metal transition.
We investigate the Mott-Anderson physics in interacting disordered one-dimensional chains through the average single-site entanglement quantified by the linear entropy, which is obtained via density-functional theory calculations. We show that the minimum disorder strength required to the so-called full Anderson localization-characterized by the real-space localization of pairs-is strongly dependent on the interaction regime. The degree of localization is found to be intrinsically related to the interplay between the correlations and the disorder potential. In magnetized systems, the minimum entanglement characteristic of the full Anderson localization is split into two, one for each of the spin species. We show that although all types of localization eventually disappear with increasing temperature, the full Anderson localization persists for higher temperatures than the Mott-like localization.
In this thesis we consider a variational wave function approach as a possible route to describe the competition between disorder and strong electron-electron interaction in two dimensions. In particular we aim to obtain a transparent and physically intuitive understanding of the competition between these two localizing forces within the simplest model where they both are active, namely the disordered Hubbard model at half filling and in a square lattice. Our approach is based on an approximate form of the ground-state wave function, which we believe contains the physically relevant ingredients for a correct description of both the Mott and the Anderson insulators, where electrons are localized by the Coulomb repulsion and by disorder, respectively. For strongly interacting fermionic systems, a standard variational wave function is constructed by a correlation term acting on a Slater determinant, the latter being an uncorrelated metallic state. Previous variational calculations showed that a long-range density-density correlation factor, so called Jastrow factor, is needed to correctly describe the Mott insulator [9]. This term, which is collective by definition, correlates spatially charge uctuations, thus preventing their free motion that would otherwise imply metallic conductance. For this reason, our variational wave function does include such a term. Anderson localization is instead mostly a matter of single-particle wave functions, hence it pertains to the uncorrelated Slater determinant which the Jastrow factor acts onto. We consider both the case in which we enforce paramagnetism in the wave function and the case in which we allow for magnetic ordering. Summarizing briefly our results, we find that, when the variational wave function is forced to be paramagnetic, the Anderson insulator to Mott insulator transition is continuous. This transition can be captured by studying several quantities. In particular, a novel one that we have identified and that is easily accessible variationally is the disconnected density-density fluctuation at long wavelength, defined by lim where ^nq is the Fourier transform of the charge density at momentum q, (...) denotes quantum average at fixed disorder and the overbar represents the average over disorder configurations. We find that Ndisc q!0 is everywhere finite in the Anderson insulator and vanishes critically at the Mott transition, staying zero in the Mott insulator. When magnetism is allowed and the hopping only connects nearest neighbor sites, upon increasing interaction the paramagnetic Anderson insulator first turns antiferromagnetic and finally the magnetic and compressible Anderson insulator gives way to an incompressible antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. The optimized uncorrelated Slater determinant is always found to be the eigenstate of a disordered non-interacting effective Hamiltonian, which suggests that the model is never metallic. Finally, when magnetism is frustrated by a next to nearest neighbor hopping, the overall sequence of phases does not change. However, the paramagnetic to magnetic transition within the Anderson insulator basin of stability turns first order. Indeed, within the magnetically ordered phase, we find many almost degenerate paramagnetic states with well defined local moments. This is suggestive of an emerging glassy behavior when the competition between disorder and strong correlation is maximum.