Jastrow theory of the Mott transition in bosonic Hubbard models

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple variational wave function with long-range correlations to describe the Mott transition in bosonic Hubbard models, highlighting a binding-unbinding transition that may extend to electronic systems.

Contribution

It introduces a Jastrow-based variational approach capturing the Mott transition, applicable across different dimensions and potentially relevant to electronic systems.

Findings

Smooth transition in 2D and 3D models

Different behavior observed in 1D models

Transition described as a binding-unbinding process

Abstract

We show that the Mott transition occurring in bosonic Hubbard models can be successfully described by a simple variational wave function that contains all important long-wavelength correlations. Within this approach, a smooth metal-insulator transition is made possible by means of a long-range Jastrow correlation term that binds in real space density fluctuations. We find that the Mott transition has similar properties in two and three dimensions but differs in one dimension. We argue that our description of the Mott transition in terms of a binding-unbinding transition is of general validity and could also be applied to realistic electronic systems.