Filling-Control Metal-Insulator Transition in the Hubbard Model Studied by the Operator Projection Method

Thermodynamic and dynamical properties of filling-control metal-insulator transition (MIT) in the Hubbard model are studied by the operator projection method, especially in two dimensions. This is a non-perturbative analytic approach to many-body systems. The present theory incorporates the Mott-Hubbard, Brinkman-Rice and Slater pictures of the MIT into a unified framework, together with reproducing low-energy narrow band arising from spin-charge fluctuations. At half filling, single-particle spectra $A(\omega, k)$ show formation of two Hubbard bands and their antiferromagnetic shadows separated by a Mott gap in the plane of energy $\omega$ and momentum $k$ with lowering temperatures. These four bands produce splitting to two low-energy narrow bands and two SDW-like bands in the dispersion. Near half filling, the low-energy narrow band persists at low temperatures. This narrow band has a particularly weak dispersion and large weights around $(\pi, 0)$ and $(0, \pi)$ momenta. The velocity of these low-energy excitations is shown to vanish towards the MIT, indicating the mass divergence as in the Brinkman-Rice picture, but most prominently around $(\pi,0)$ and $(0,\pi)$ with strong momentum dependence. This reflects the suppression of the coherence near the MIT. Main structures in $A(\omega, k)$ show remarkable similarities to quantum Monte-Carlo results in two dimensions as well as in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. The charge compressibility appears to diverge with decreasing doping concentration in both one and two dimensions in agreement with the exact and quantum Monte-Carlo results. We also discuss implications of the flat dispersion formed near the Fermi level to the observations in high-$\Tc$ cuprate superconductors.