Universal dielectric response across a continuous metal-insulator transition

A wide range of disordered materials, including disordered correlated systems, show universal dielectric response (UDR), followed by a superlinear power-law increase in their optical responses over exceptionally broad frequency regimes. While extensively used in various contexts over the years, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2019-03, Vol.99 (12), Article 125147
Main Authors: Haldar, Prosenjit, Laad, M. S., Hassan, S. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Correlation
Fermions
Insulators
Mean field theory
Metal-insulator transition
Orthogonality
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Summary:A wide range of disordered materials, including disordered correlated systems, show universal dielectric response (UDR), followed by a superlinear power-law increase in their optical responses over exceptionally broad frequency regimes. While extensively used in various contexts over the years, the microscopics underpinning UDR remains controversial. Here, we investigate the optical response of the simplest model of correlated fermions, the Falicov-Kimball model, across the continuous metal-insulator transition (MIT) and analyze the associated quantum criticality in detail using cluster extension of dynamical mean-field theory. Surprisingly, we find that UDR naturally emerges in the quantum critical region associated with the continuous MIT. We tie the emergence of these novel features to a many-body orthogonality catastrophe accompanying the onset of strongly correlated electronic glassy dynamics close to the MIT, providing a microscopic realization of Jonscher's time-honored proposal as well as a rationale for similarities in optical responses between correlated electronic matter and canonical glass formers.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.125147