Theory of a continuous bandwidth-tuned Wigner-Mott transition

Abstract

We develop a theory for a continuous bandwidth-tuned transition at fixed \textit{fractional} electron filling from a metal with a generic Fermi surface to a `Wigner-Mott' insulator that spontaneously breaks crystalline space-group symmetries. Across the quantum critical point, (i) the entire electronic Fermi surface disappears abruptly upon approaching from the metallic side, and (ii) the insulating charge gap and various order parameters associated with the spontaneously broken space-group symmetries vanish continuously upon approaching from the insulating side. Additionally, the insulating side hosts a Fermi surface of neutral spinons. We present a framework for describing such continuous metal-insulator transitions (MITs) and analyze the example of a bandwidth-tuned transition at a filling, $\nu =1/6$, for spinful electrons on the triangular lattice. By extending the theory to a certain large-$N$ limit, we provide a concrete example of such a continuous MIT and discuss numerous experimental signatures near the critical point. We place our results in the context of recent experiments in moiré transition metal dichalcogenide materials.

13 pages, 6 figures; updated upon journal acceptance

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Cited by in corpus (17)

• Phase transitions out of quantum Hall states in moiré materials
• Dielectric catastrophe at the Mott and Wigner transitions in a moiré superlattice
• Tunable quantum criticalities in an isospin extended Hubbard model simulator
• Magnetism and Quantum Melting in Moiré-Material Wigner Crystals
• Quantum noise spectroscopy of dynamical critical phenomena
• Quantum Melting of Generalized Wigner Crystals in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Moiré Systems
• Doping a Wigner-Mott insulator: Exotic charge orders in transition-metal dichalcogenide moiré heterobilayers
• How to recognize the universal aspects of Mott criticality?
• Charge and spin properties of a generalized Wigner crystal realized in the moiré WSe${}_2$/WS${}_2$ heterobilayer
• Metal to Wigner-Mott insulator transition in two-leg ladders
• Fractionalization as an alternate to charge ordering in electronic insulators
• Bipartite Fluctuations of Critical Fermi Surfaces
• Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2
• Continuous Wigner-Mott transition at $\nu =1/5$
• Origin and stability of generalized Wigner crystallinity in triangular moiré systems
• Deconfined Quantum Critical Point with Non-locality
• Universal transport at Lifshitz metal-insulator transitions in two dimensions