  The phase diagram of the cuprate superconductors has posed a formidable
scientific challenge for more than three decades. This challenge is perhaps
best exemplified by the need to understand the normal-state charge transport as
the system evolves from Mott insulator to Fermi-liquid metal with doping. Here
we report a detailed analysis of the temperature (T) and doping (p) dependence
of the planar resistivity of simple-tetragonal HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$
(Hg1201), the single-CuO$_2$-layer cuprate with the highest optimal $T_c$. The
data allow us to test a recently proposed phenomenological model for the
cuprate phase diagram that combines a universal transport scattering rate with
spatially inhomogeneous (de)localization of the Mott-localized hole. We find
that the model provides an excellent description of the data. We then extend
this analysis to prior transport results for several other cuprates, including
the Hall number in the overdoped part of the phase diagram, and find little
compound-to-compound variation in (de)localization gap scale. The results point
to a robust, universal structural origin of the inherent gap inhomogeneity that
is unrelated to doping-related disorder. They are inconsistent with the notion
that much of the phase diagram is controlled by a quantum critical point, and
instead indicate that the unusual electronic properties exhibited by the
cuprates are fundamentally related to strong nonlinearities associated with
subtle nanoscale inhomogeneity.
