The Mott Metal-Insulator Transition

This comprehensive review covers our current understanding of the metal-insulator transition due to electron-electron interactions. A pedagogical introduction to the basic concepts for the Mott transition, the Hubbard model, and various analytical approaches to correlated electron systems is presented. A new classification scheme for Mott insulators as Mott-Hubbard and Mott-Heisenberg insulators is proposed. Traditional methods like Hartree-Fock theory, local-density approximations, Green function decouplings, variational wave functions, and slave Boson techniques are critically examined for their potential to describe the Mott transition. Exactly solvable Hubbard-type models in one dimension and in the limit of high dimensions provide decisive clues to the mechanism behind the metal-insulator transition.