  We use a novel method of computing the third moment M_3 of the action of the
2+1-dimensional compact Higgs model in the adjoint representation with q=2 to
extract correlation length and specific heat exponents nu and alpha, without
invoking hyperscaling. Finite-size scaling analysis of M_3 yields the ratio
(1+alpha)/nu and 1/nu separately. We find that alpha and nu vary along the
critical line of the theory, which however exhibits a remarkable resilience of
Z_2 criticality. We propose this novel universality class to be that of the
quantum phase transition from a Mott-Hubbard insulator to a
charge-fractionalized insulator in two spatial dimensions.
