The R2B parametrization works on either side of the transition. Note that $\eta$ is negative on the insulating side in the last panel. \[fig:transition\_orderparam\]](IPT_transition_Uc2.pdf){width="\linewidth"}

Consistent with our previous discussion, in the $t_\perp= 0.8$ case we see the parameter $|\eta|$ continuously and linearly going to zero at both sides of the transition ($\eta > 0$ in the metal). The parameter $Z$ remains close to one, which indicates an almost negligible mass enhancement. As one lowers the value of $t_\perp$ to 0.5, we observe that the $Z$ parameter begins to experience a bigger renormalization. Further down, for $t_\perp=0.3$ the mass renormalization ($\propto 1/Z$) is very large. Thus the metal state is strongly correlated with heavy quasiparticles. We can think of such a state at low energies as resulting from two “Kondo” states at each one of the atomic impurity sites. Each one of the sites is independently screened by conduction electrons, and also by each other. This leads to renormalized bonding and anti-bonding heavy bands as was already discussed in our previous paper [@najera2017_resolving_vo2_controversy]. Here we shall be concerned with the question of how this heavy metallic state breaks down as $U$ is increased.

A heavy metal with a (single) band and 