Charge Transfer Excitons and the Metal-Insulator Transition in the High Temperature Superconductors

The effects of the nearest neighbour Coulomb repulsion, V, are considered in the one dimensional copper-oxide chain using the modified Lanczos method. Above a critical value of V we find that charge transfer excitons are the lowest lying energy exitations in the insulating phase. Close to the metal-insulator transition and $V=0$ there is good `particle-hole' symmetry, showing that the mapping from a two band model to a one band model is appropriate. The effect of the nearest neighbour repulsion is to create states in the gap and to pin the Fermi level upon hole doping.