Mott transition in an anyon gas

We introduce and analyze a lattice model of anyons in a periodic potential and an external magnetic field, which exhibits a transition from a Mott insulator to a quantum Hall fluid. The transition is characterized by the anyon statistics α, which can vary between fermions, α=0, and bosons, α=1. For bosons the transition is in the universality class of the classical three-dimensional XY model. Near the fermion limit, the transition is described by a massless 2+1 Dirac theory coupled to a Chern-Simons gauge field. Analytic calculations perturbative in α, and also a large-N expansion, show that due to gauge fluctuations, the critical properties of the transition are dependent on the anyon statistics. Comparison with previous calculations at and near the boson limit, strongly suggest that our lattice model exhibits a fixed line of critical points, with universal critical properties that vary continuously and monotonically as one passes from fermions to bosons. Possible relevance to experiments on the transitions between plateaus in the fractional quantum Hall effect and the magnetic-field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition are briefly discussed.