Mott Transition between a Spin-Liquid Insulator and a Metal in Three Dimensions

Abstract

We study a bandwidth controlled Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) from a Fermi-liquid metal to a quantum spin-liquid insulator in three dimensions. Using a slave rotor approach including gauge fluctuations, we obtain a continuous MIT and discuss finite temperature crossovers in its vicinity. We show that the specific heat C-T lnln(1/T) at the MIT and that the metallic state near the MIT should exhibit a ‘‘conductivity minimum’’ as a function of temperature. We suggest Na[subscript 4]Ir[subscript 3]O[subscript 8] as a candidate to test our predictions and compute its electron spectral function at the MIT.