We solve a very general two-channel fermion-boson model describing charge transport within some background medium by means of a refined pseudosite density-matrix renormalization group technique. Performing a careful finite-size scaling analysis, we determine the ground-state phase diagram and convincingly prove that the model exhibits a metal-insulator quantum phase transition for the half-filled band case. In order to characterize the metallic and insulating regimes we calculate, besides the local particle densities and fermion-boson correlation functions, the kinetic energy, the charge-structure factor, the Luttinger liquid charge exponent, and the single-particle excitation gap for a one-dimensional infinite system.

• Received 5 November 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.106404