Motivated by recent experiments on the finite temperature Mott transition in
VO2 films, we propose a classical coarse-grained dielectric breakdown model
where each degree of freedom represents a nanograin which transitions from
insulator to metal with increasing temperature and voltage at random thresholds
due to quenched disorder. We describe the properties of the resulting
non-equilibrium metal-insulator transition and explain the universal
characteristics of the resistance jump distribution. We predict that by tuning
voltage, another critical point is approached, which separates a phase of
"bolt"-like avalanches from percolation-like ones.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
