Suppression of Mott–Hubbard states and metal–insulator transitions in the two-band Hubbard model

I investigate band and Mott insulating states in a two-band Hubbard model, with the aim of understanding the differences between the idealised oneorbital model and the more realistic multi-band case. Using a projection ansatz I show that additional orbitals suppress the metal-insulator transition, leading to a critical coupling of approximately eight times the bare band-width. I also demonstrate the effects of orbital ordering, which hinder Mott-Hubbard states and open a band gap. Since multi-band correlations are common in real materials, this work suggests that the existence of very strongly correlated band insulators may be more common than Mott-Hubbard insulators. [PUBLISHED AS J.PHYS.:CONDENS. MATTER 17 1385-1397 (2005)] PACS numbers: 71.30.+h