  We present a theoretical approach to describing the Mott transition of
electrons on a two dimensional lattice that begins with the low energy
effective theory of the Fermi liquid. The approach to the Mott transition must
be characterized by the suppression of density and current fluctuations which
correspond to specific shape deformations of the Fermi surface. We explore the
nature of the Mott insulator and the corresponding Mott transition when these
shape fluctuations of the Fermi surface are suppressed without making any a
prior assumptions about other Fermi surface shape fluctuations. Building on
insights from the theory of the Mott transition of bosons, we implement this
suppression by identifying and condensing vortex degrees of freedom in the
phase of the low energy electron operator. We show that the resulting Mott
insulator is a quantum spin liquid with a spinon fermi surface coupled to a
U(1) gauge field which is usually described within a slave particle
formulation. Our approach thus provides a coarse-grained treatment of the Mott
transition and the proximate spin liquid that is nevertheless equivalent to the
standard slave particle construction. This alternate point of view provides
further insight into the novel physics of the Mott transition and the spin
liquid state that is potentially useful. We describe a generalization that
suppresses spin anti-symmetric fluctuations of the Fermi surface that leads to
a spin-gapped charge metal previously also discussed in terms of slave particle
constructions.
