Landau Theory of the Mott Transition in the Fully Frustrated Hubbard Model in Infinite Dimensions

Abstract

We discuss the solution of the Mott transition problem in a fully frustrated lattice with a semicircular density of states in the limit of infinite dimensions from the point of view of a Landau free energy functional. This approach provides a simple relation between the free energy of the lattice model and that of its local description in terms of an impurity model. The character of the Mott transition in infinite dimensions, (as reviewed by Georges Kotliar Krauth and Rozenberg, RMP 68, 1996, 13) follows simply from the form of the free energy functional and the physics of quantum impurity models. At zero temperature, below a critical value of the interaction U, a Mott insulator with a finite gap in the one particle spectrum, becomes unstable to the formation of a narrow band near the Fermi energy. Using the insights provided by the Landau approach we answer questions raised about the dynamical mean field solution of the Mott transition problem, and comment on its applicability to three dimensional transition metal oxides.