Quantum criticality around metal-insulator transitions of strongly correlated electron systems

Quantum criticality of metal-insulator transitions in correlated electron systems is shown to belong to an unconventional universality class with violation of the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson (GLW) scheme formulated for symmetry breaking transitions. This unconventionality arises from an emergent character of the quantum critical point, which appears at the marginal point between the Ising-type symmetry breaking at nonzero temperatures and the topological transition of the Fermi surface at zero temperature. We show that Hartree-Fock approximations of an extended Hubbard model on square lattices are capable of such metal-insulator transitions with unusual criticality under a preexisting symmetry breaking. The obtained universality is consistent with the scaling theory formulated for Mott transitions and with a number of numerical results beyond the mean-field level, implying that preexisting symmetry breaking is not necessarily required for the emergence of this unconventional universality. Examinations of fluctuation effects indicate that the obtained critical exponents remain essentially exact beyond the mean-field level. It further clarifies the whole structure of singularities by a unified treatment of the bandwidth-control and filling-control transitions. Detailed analyses of the criticality, containing diverging carrier density fluctuations around the marginal quantum critical point, are presented from microscopic calculations and reveal the nature as quantum critical "opalescence." The mechanism of emerging marginal quantum critical point is ascribed to a positive feedback and interplay between the preexisting gap formation present even in metals and kinetic energy gain (loss) of the metallic carrier. Analyses of crossovers between GLW type at nonzero temperature and topological type at zero temperature show that the critical exponents observed in (V,Cr)2 O3 and κ-ET -type organic conductors provide us with evidence for the existence of the present marginal quantum criticality.