Work

Relevance of long-range screening in Mott transition examined via a hydrogen lattice

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The Mott transition, a metal-insulator transition due to strong electronic interaction, is observed in many materials without an accompanying change of system symmetry. An important open question in Mott's proposal is the role of long-range screening, whose drastic change across the quantum phase transition may self-consistently make the transition more abrupt, toward a first-order one. Here, we investigate this effect in a model system of hydrogen atoms in a cubic lattice, using charge self-consistent dynamical mean-field theory that incorporates approximately the long-range interaction within the density functional treatment. We found that the system is well within the charge-transfer (CT) regime and that the CT gap intimately related to the Mott transition closes smoothly instead. This indicates that the long-range screening does not play an essential role in this prototypical example. This finding can be understood from the fact that the obtained insulating phase in this model system is driven by strong local interaction, and the transition is associated with the closing of CT gap. Contrary to Mott's length-scale argument, such energetic competition between kinetic energy and local interaction is thus insensitive to long-range screening.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/ydzp-l985

Authors: Zi-Jian Lang, Sudeshna Sen, Pak Ki Henry Tsang, Kristjan Haule, Vladimir Dobrosavljević, Wei Ku

Institutions: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad, Florida State University, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Language: English

Topic: Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green