We study a bandwidth controlled Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) between a Fermi liquid metal and a quantum spin-liquid insulator at half-filling in three dimensions (3D). Using a slave rotor approach, and incorporating gauge field fluctuations, we find a continuous MIT and discuss the finite temperature crossovers around this critical point. We show that the specific heat C=T ln ln (1/T) at the MIT and argue that the electrical transport on the metallic side near the transition should exhibit a `conductivity minimum' as a function of temperature. A possible candidate to test these predictions is the 3D spin liquid insulator Na4Ir3O8 which exhibits a pressure-tuned transition into a metallic phase. We also present the electron spectral function of Na4Ir3O8 at the transition.
@article{arxiv.0811.2218,
title = {Mott transition between a spin-liquid insulator and a metal in three dimensions},
author = {Daniel Podolsky and Arun Paramekanti and Yong Baek Kim and T. Senthil},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.2218},
year = {2013}
}