Optical Conductivity in Mott-Hubbard Systems

We study the transfer of spectral weight in the optical spectra of a strongly correlated electron system as a function of temperature and interaction strength. Within a dynamical mean field theory of the Hubbard model that becomes exact in the limit of large lattice coordination, we predict an anomalous enhancement of spectral weight as a function of temperature in the correlated metallic state and report on experimental measurements which agree with this prediction in $V_2O_3$. We argue that the optical conductivity anomalies in the metal are connected to the proximity to a crossover region in the phase diagram of the model.