Dynamical slave-boson mean-field study of the Mott transition in the Hubbard model in the large-$z$ limit

TL;DR

This paper develops a dynamical slave-boson mean-field theory for the Hubbard model in the large-$z$ limit, providing insights into the Mott transition, doublon-holon binding, and the nature of the insulating phase as a $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamical slave-boson approach that captures the quantum correction to the Brinkman-Rice transition and describes the Mott insulator as a $U(1)$ spin liquid with spin-charge separation.

Findings

Quantitative agreement with dynamical mean-field theory.

Identification of the Mott insulator as a $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid.

Critical Hubbard $U_c$ approximately 0.8 times $U_{BR}$.

Abstract

The Mott metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model is studied by constructing a dynamical slave-boson mean-field theory in the limit of large lattice coordination number $z$ that incorporates the binding between doubly occupied (doublon) and empty (holon) sites. On the Mott insulating side where all doublons and holons bond in real space into excitonic pairs leading to the charge gap, the theory simplifies considerably to leading order in $1/\sqrt{z}$, and becomes exact on the infinite-$z$ Bethe lattice. An asymptotic solution is obtained for a continuous Mott transition associated with the closing of the charge gap at a critical value of the Hubbard $U_c$ and the corresponding doublon density $n_d^c$, hopping $\chi_d^c$ and doublon-holon pairing $\Delta_d^c$ amplitudes. We find $U_c=U_{\rm BR} [1 -2n_d^c -\sqrt{z} (\chi_d^c +\Delta_d^c))] \simeq0.8U_{\rm BR}$, where $U_{\rm BR}$ is the critical value for the Brinkman-Rice transition in the Gutzwiller approximation captured in the static mean-field solution of the slave-boson formulation of Kotliar and Ruckenstein. Thus, the Mott transition can be viewed as the quantum correction to the Brinkman-Rice transition due to doublon-holon binding. Quantitative comparisons are made to the results of the dynamical mean-field theory, showing good agreement. In the absence of magnetic order, the Mott insulator is a $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid with nonzero intersite spinon hopping that survives the large-$z$ limit and lifts the $2^N$-fold degeneracy of the local moments. We show that the spinons are coupled to the doublons/holons by a dissipative compact $U(1)$ gauge field in the deconfined phase, realizing the spin-charge separated gapless spin liquid Mott insulator.