10.

6 Discussion and Outlook 559

0.90 1.00 1.10

-
D

0.00 "'.,,"',,"',"",,,,,,,,"
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
UNV
Figure 10.8: The UIW-dependence of the density of the doubly occupied sites for
the half-filled 1/r Hubbard chain, after [96]. Thick lines show the results from the
approximation-free evaluation of the Gutzwiller (G) and Baeriswyl (B) trial states;
the thin line shows the Gutzwiller approximation. The dotted line gives the exact
solution. The inset shows a magnification of the neighbourhood of the Mott transi-
tion.

The reason why we are reluctant to delve deeper into the solution
of the l/r model to learn more about the Mott transition, is that it
has some pathological features just as far as electrical conduction is
concerned. As the reader can convince himself by solving Problem 10.6,
the noninteracting ground state carries a large current and we conjecture
that even the nominally insulating ground state is current-carrying. The
reason why we are bold enough to call it a Mott insulator is that at
U = W ,a gap opens in the single-particle excitation spectrum.
The studies of the 1/r Hubbard chain give a particularly convincing
illustration of the wellknown warning: the accuracy of the predicted
ground state energy is not a reliable criterion of the quality of a varia-
tional wave function. As discussed also in the previous section, improved