  We study the nonequilibrium switching phenomenon associated with the
metal-insulator transition under electric field E in correlated insulator by a
gauge-covariant Keldysh formalism. Due to the feedback effect of the resistive
current I, this occurs as a first-order transition with a hysteresis of I-V
characteristics having a lower threshold electric field (\sim 10^4 Vcm^{-1})
much weaker than that for the Zener breakdown. It is also found that the
localized mid-gap states introduced by impurities and defects act as hot spots
across which the resonant tunneling occurs selectively, which leads to the
conductive filamentary paths and reduces the energy cost of the switching
function.
