Temperature Effects on Metal-Insulator Transitions in the Ionic Hubbard Model*

The ionic Hubbard model is known to exhibit interesting transitions between metallic and insulating phases at zero temperature. We investigate finite-temperature phase transitions in the model. For an extensive finite-temperature study, we apply a dynamical mean- field theory with continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method employed as an impurity solver. We examine how the transitions at zero temperature evolve as the temperature increases. We also discuss the effects of temperature on the nature of transitions and other properties of the system.