By using a combination of several nonperturbative techniques-a one-dimensional field theoretical approach together with numerical simulations using density-matrix renormalization group-we present an extensive study of the phase diagram of the generalized Hund model at half filling. This model encloses the physics of various strongly correlated one-dimensional systems, such as two-leg electronic ladders, ultracold degenerate fermionic gases carrying a large hyperfine spin 3 2 , other cold gases such as ytterbium 171 or alkaline-earth condensates. A particular emphasis is laid on the possibility to enumerate and exhaust the eight possible Mott-insulating phases by means of a duality approach. We exhibit a one-to-one correspondence between these phases and those of the two-leg electronic ladders with interchain hopping. Our results obtained from a weak-coupling analysis are in remarkable quantitative agreement with our numerical results carried out at moderate coupling.where l =1,2 is the leg or orbital index and = ↑ , ↓ denotes the spin-1 2 index. Three basic global continuous symmetries are retained: a U͑1͒ charge symmetry ͑c l,i → e i c l,i ͒, a SU͑2͒ spin-rotational invariance ͓c l,i → ͚ Ј ͑e i ជ · ជ /2 ͒ Ј c l Ј ,i , ជ being the Pauli matrices͔, and a U͑1͒ orbital symmetry ͑c 1͑2͒,i → e Ϯi c 1͑2͒,i ͒. Moreover, we will consider models for which the two legs or two bands behave identically; in other words, we impose a Z 2 invariance under the permutation of the legs. If we restrict ourselves to on-site interactions, the most general model with H =U͑1͒ c ϫ SU͑2͒ s ϫ U͑1͒ o ϫ Z 2 invariance then reads as follows: 32 l,i ͑2͒ whereas T i z = 1 2 ͚ ͑n 1,i − n 2,i ͒ is the generator of the U͑1͒ symmetry for orbital degrees of freedom.Model ͑1͒ depends on three microscopic couplings: a Coulombic interaction U, a Hund coupling J H , and an "orbital crystal-field anisotropy" J t . When J t = 0, the resulting model is the so-called Hund model which has been investigated in the context of orbital degeneracy. 15,28,32 The generalized Hund model ͑1͒ is directly linked to ultracold fermionic 171 Yb and alkaline-earth atoms with nuclear spin I = 1 2 . 33,34 The two-orbital states are described in these systems by the ground state ͑ 1 S 0 ϵ g͒ and a long-lived excited state ͑ 3 P 0 ϵ e͒. The almost perfect decoupling of the nuclear spin from the electronic angular momentum J in the two e , g states ͑J = 0 states͒ makes the s-wave scattering lengths of the problem independent of the nuclear spin. The low-energy Hamiltonian relevant to the 171 Yb cold gas loaded into a 1D optical lattice then reads 34 H Yb = − t ͚