The Mott Transition and F Electron Physics

The Mott transition, namely the metal–insulator transition (MIT) driven by electron–electron interactions, is a fascinating phenomenon realized experimentally in many compounds such as V2O3 and Ni(Se,S)2. It was suggested many years ago by Johansson that the Mott transition concept is also relevant to elements in the lanthanide and actinide series. The development of dynamical mean–field methods, and the solution of the Mott–transition problem within this methodology, has spurred the development of new electronic structure methods, and qualitative and quantitative insights into the physics of actinides. Johansson’s observation placing Pu near a localization delocalization boundary is a key to understanding this complex material and other localization–delocalizatoin transitions such as the α to γ transition in elemental Cerium. The appropriate technique for developing this idea is the dynamical mean-field method.