The thermopower as a fingerprint of the Kondo breakdown quantum critical point

We propose that the thermoelectric power distinguishes two competing scenarios for quantum phase transitions in heavy fermions : the spin-density-wave (SDW) theory and breakdown of the Kondo effect. In the Kondo breakdown scenario, the Seebeck coefficient turns out to collapse from the temperature scale $E^{*}$, associated with quantum fluctuations of the Fermi surface reconfiguration. This feature differs radically from the physics of the SDW theory, where no reconstruction of the Fermi surface occurs, and can be considered as the hallmark of the Kondo breakdown theory. We test these ideas, upon experimental results for YbRh$_2$Si$_2$

Quantum Correction to Conductivity Close to Ferromagnetic Quantum Critical Point in Two Dimensions

We study the temperature dependence of the conductivity due to quantum interference processes for a two-dimensional disordered itinerant electron system close to a ferromagnetic quantum critical point. Near the quantum critical point, the cross-over between diffusive and ballistic regimes of quantum interference effects occurs at a temperature $T^{\ast}=1/\tau \gamma (E_{F}\tau)^{2}$, where $\gamma$ is the parameter associated with the Landau damping of the spin fluctuations, $\tau$ is the impurity scattering time, and $E_{F}$ is the Fermi energy. For a generic choice of parameters, $T^{\ast}$ is smaller than the nominal crossover scale $1/\tau$. In the ballistic quantum critical regime, the conductivity behaves as $T^{1/3}$.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Violation of Wiedemann-Franz law at the Kondo breakdown quantum critical point

We study both the electrical and thermal transport near the heavy-fermion quantum critical point (QCP), identified with the breakdown of the Kondo effect as an orbital selective Mott transition. We show that the contribution to the electrical conductivity comes mainly from conduction electrons while the thermal conductivity is given by both conduction electrons and localized fermions (spinons), scattered with dynamical exponent $z = 3$. This scattering mechanism gives rise to a quasi-linear temperature dependence of the electrical and thermal resistivity. The characteristic feature of the Kondo breakdown scenario turns out to be emergence of additional entropy carriers, that is, spinon excitations. As a result, we find that the Wiedemann-Franz ratio should be larger than the standard value, a fact which enables to differentiate the Kondo breakdown scenario from the Hertz-Moriya-Millis framework

Selective Mott transition and heavy fermions

Starting with an extended version of the Anderson lattice where the f-electrons are allowed a weak dispersion, we examine the possibility of a Mott localization of the f-electrons, for a finite value of the hybridization $V$. We study the fluctuations at the quantum critical point (QCP) where the f-electrons localize. We find they are in the same universality class as for the Kondo breakdown QCP, with the following notable features. The quantum critical regime sees the appearance of an additional energy scale separating two universality classes. In the low energy regime, the fluctuations are dominated by massless gauge modes, while in the intermediate energy regime, the fluctuations of the modulus of the order parameter are the most relevant ones. In the latter regime, electric transport simplifies drastically, leading to a quasi-linear resistivity in 3D and anomalous exponents lower than T in 2 D. This rather unique feature of the quantum critical regime enables us to make experimentally testable predictions.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure

Exact bosonization for an interacting Fermi gas in arbitrary dimensions

We present an exact mapping of models of interacting fermions onto boson models. The bosons correspond to collective excitations in the initial fermionic models. This bosonization is applicable in any dimension and for any interaction between fermions. We show schematically how the mapping can be used for Monte Carlo calculations and argue that it should be free from the sign problem. Introducing superfields we derive a field theory that may serve as a new way of analytical study.Comment: Basic equations are derived more carefully and in a simpler wa

Low energy excitations and singular contributions in the thermodynamics of clean Fermi liquids

Using a recently suggested method of bosonization in an arbitrary dimension, we study the anomalous contribution of the low energy spin and charge excitations to thermodynamic quantities of a two-dimensional (2D) Fermi liquid. The method is slightly modified for the present purpose such that the effective supersymmetric action no longer contains the high energy degrees of freedom but still accounts for effects of the finite curvature of the Fermi surface. Calculating the anomalous contribution $\delta c(T)$ to the specific heat, we show that the leading logarithmic in temperature corrections to $\delta c(T)/T^2$ can be obtained in a scheme combining a summation of ladder diagrams and renormalization group equations. The final result is represented as the sum of two separate terms that can be interpreted as coming from singlet and triplet superconducting excitations. The latter may diverge in certain regions of the coupling constants, which should correspond to the formation of triplet Cooper pairs.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figure

Scaling approach to itinerant quantum critical points

Based on phase space arguments, we develop a simple approach to metallic quantum critical points, designed to study the problem without integrating the fermions out of the partition function. The method is applied to the spin-fermion model of a T=0 ferromagnetic transition. Stability criteria for the conduction and the spin fluids are derived by scaling at the tree level. We conclude that anomalous exponents may be generated for the fermion self-energy and the spin-spin correlation functions below $d=3$, in spite of the spin fluid being above its upper critical dimension.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures; discussion of the phase space restriction modified and, for illustrative purposes, restricted to the tree-level analysis of the ferromagnetic transitio

Quantum critical behavior in itinerant electron systems -- Eliashberg theory and instability of a ferromagnetic quantum-critical point

We consider the problem of fermions interacting with gapless long-wavelength collective bosonic modes. The theory describes, among other cases, a ferromagnetic quantum-critical point (QCP) and a QCP towards nematic ordering. We construct a controllable expansion at the QCP in two steps: we first create a new, non Fermi-liquid ``zero-order'' Eliashberg-type theory, and then demonstrate that the residual interaction effects are small. We prove that this approach is justified under two conditions: the interaction should be smaller than the fermionic bandwidth, and either the band mass $m_B$ should be much smaller than $m = p_F/v_F$, or the number of fermionic flavors $N$ should be large. For an SU(2) symmetric ferromagnetic QCP, we find that the Eliashberg theory itself includes a set of singular renormalizations which can be understood as a consequence of an effective long-range dynamic interaction between quasi-particles, generated by the Landau damping term. These singular renormalizations give rise to a negative non-analytic $q^{3/2}$ correction to the static spin susceptibility, and destroy a ferromagnetic QCP. We demonstrate that this effect can be understood in the framework of the $\phi^4$ theory of quantum criticality. We also show that the non-analytic $q^{3/2}$ correction to the bosonic propagator is specific to the SU(2) symmetric case. For systems with a scalar order parameter, the $q^{3/2}$ contributions from individual diagrams cancel out in the full expression of the susceptibility, and the QCP remains stable.Comment: 37 pages, 10 fig

Atomic Model of Susy Hubbard Operators

We apply the recently proposed susy Hubbard operators to an atomic model. In the limiting case of free spins, we derive exact results for the entropy which are compared with a mean field + gaussian corrections description. We show how these results can be extended to the case of charge fluctuations and calculate exact results for the partition function, free energy and heat capacity of an atomic model for some simple examples. Wavefunctions of possible states are listed. We compare the accuracy of large N expansions of the susy spin operators with those obtained using `Schwinger bosons' and `Abrikosov pseudo-fermions'. For the atomic model, we compare results of slave boson, slave fermion, and susy Hubbard operator approximations in the physically interesting but uncontrolled limiting case of N->2. For a mixed representation of spins we estimate the accuracy of large N expansions of the atomic model. In the single box limit, we find that the lowest energy saddle-point solution reduces to simply either slave bosons or slave fermions, while for higher boxes this is not the case. The highest energy saddle-point solution has the interesting feature that it admits a small region of a mixed representation, which bears a superficial resemblance to that seen experimentally close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point.Comment: 17 pages + 7 pages Appendices, 14 figures. Substantial revision