Residual Entropy of the Mott Insulator with No Symmetry Broken

Abstract

The half-filled ground state of the Hubbard model on the hypercubic lattice in D dimensions is studied by the Kondo-lattice theory, which is none other than the 1/D expansion theory, but within the constrained Hilbert subspace where no symmetry is allowed to be broken. A gap can open in the single-particle excitation spectrum if and only if the residual entropy or entropy at T=+0 K is nonzero. The Mott insulator with no symmetry broken, if it is possible, is characterized by nonzero residual entropy or nonzero entropy at T=+0 K. This conclusion is consistent with Brinkman and Rice's theory and the dynamical mean-field theory. According to the well-known argument based on the Bethe-ansatz solution, on the other hand, the half-filled ground state in one dimension is the Mott insulator although its residual entropy per unit cell is vanishing in the thermodynamic limit. Two possible explanations are given for the contradiction between the present paper and the well-known argument.