Mott Transition and Transition to Incompressible States-Variety and Universality

Critical properties of transitions between a variety of quantum fluids and the Mott insulator are examined in terms of the transition to an incompressible state. In one dimension, they show universally common properties each other irrespective of the statistics, components and the interaction of particles. In two dimensions, they show qualitative differences originated from the differences in the nature of the quantum fluid. It is useful to categorize the singularity at the Mott transition into two types, namely, one characterized by the charge mass divergence and the other by the vanishment of the carrier number. This difference originates from the number of components. Its variety is further explored by examining various cases such as strongly correlated fermions, hard core bosons and boson t-J models. Critical properties to other incompressible states such as spin gap states and the fractional quantum Hall state are also discussed from the same viewpoint. Relevance of our analyses to the understanding of normal state properties in high-Tc cuprates and other transition metal oxides is discussed.