  We calculate the non-equilibrium electronic transport properties of a
one-dimensional interacting chain at half filling, coupled to non-interacting
leads. The interacting chain is initially in a Mott insulator state that is
driven out of equilibrium by applying a strong bias voltage between the leads.
For bias voltages above a certain threshold we observe the breakdown of the
Mott insulator state and the establishment of a steady-state electronic current
through the system. Based on extensive time-dependent density matrix
renormalization group simulations, we show that this steady-state current
always has the same functional dependence on voltage, independent of the
microscopic details of the model and relate the value of the threshold to the
Lieb-Wu gap. We frame our results in terms of the Landau-Zener dielectric
breakdown picture. Finally, we also discuss the real-time evolution of the
current, and characterize the current-carrying state resulting from the
breakdown of the Mott insulator by computing the double occupancy, the spin
structure factor, and the entanglement entropy.
