Absence of a Slater transition in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

We present well-controlled results on the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) within the paramagnetic solution of the dynamical cluster approximation in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at half filling. In the strong coupling regime, a local picture describes the properties of the model; there is a large charge gap Delta approximately U. In the weak-coupling regime, we find that a symbiosis of short-range antiferromagnetic correlations and moment formation cause a gap to open at finite temperature as in one dimension. Hence, this excludes the mechanism of the MIT proposed by Slater long ago.