Orbital-selective Mott transition in multiband systems: Slave-spin representation and dynamical mean-field theory

We examine whether the Mott transition of a half-filled, two-orbital Hubbard model with unequal bandwidths occurs simultaneously for both bands or whether it is a two-stage process in which the orbital with narrower bandwith localizes first (giving rise to an intermediate “orbital-selective” Mott phase). This question is addressed using both dynamical mean-field theory and a representation of fermion operators in terms of slave quantum spins, followed by a mean-field approximation (similar in spirit to a Gutzwiller approximation). In the latter approach, the Mott transition is found to be orbital selective for all values of the Coulomb exchange (Hund) coupling J when the bandwidth ratio is small and only beyond a critical value of J when the bandwidth ratio is larger. Dynamical mean-field theory partially confirms these findings, but the intermediate phase at J=0 is found to differ from a conventional Mott insulator, with spectral weight extending down to arbitrary low energy. Finally, the orbital-selective Mott phase is found, at zero temperature, to be unstable with respect to an interorbital hybridization V and replaced at small V by a state with a large effective mass (and a low quasiparticle coherence scale) for the narrower band.