Instability of the Mott or Lieb-Wu insulator caused by an infinitesimal perturbation

Abstract

The half-filled ground state of the Hubbard model in one dimension is studied by Kondo-lattice theory. Because of the Kondo effect, any insulating ground state with a complete gap open is unstable in the presence of an infinitesimal perturbation. This fact casts doubt on the claim by E. H. Lieb and F. Y. Wu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 20, 1445 (1968) that the half-filled ground state is the Mott insulator. Though the claim is based on a rigorous result given by the Bethe-ansatz solution, the rigorous result is simply a necessary condition for the ground state being an insulator.