Conductance of Quantum Impurity Models from Quantum Monte Carlo

The conductance of two Anderson impurity models, one with two-fold and another with four-fold degeneracy, representing two types of quantum dots, is calculated using a world-line quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. Extrapolation of the imaginary time QMC data to zero frequency yields the linear conductance, which is then compared to numerical renormalization group results in order to assess its accuracy. We find that the method gives excellent results at low temperature (T<Tk) throughout the mixed valence and Kondo regimes, but it is unreliable for higher temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Quantum Phase Transition and Dynamically Enhanced Symmetry in Quadruple Quantum Dot System

We propose a system of four quantum dots designed to study the competition between three types of interactions: Heisenberg, Kondo and Ising. We find a rich phase diagram containing two sharp features: a quantum phase transition (QPT) between charge-ordered and charge-liquid phases, and a dramatic resonance in the charge liquid visible in the conductance. The QPT is of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type with a discontinuous jump in the conductance at the transition. We connect the resonance phenomenon with the degeneracy of three levels in the isolated quadruple dot and argue that this leads to a Kondo-like dynamical enhancement of symmetry from U(1) x Z_2 to U(1) x U(1).Comment: 4 pages main text + 4 pages supplementary materia

The Benefits of Stress: Resolution of the Lifshitz Singularity

Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, Lifshitz spacetimes describe field theories with dynamical scaling ($z \neq 1$). Although curvature invariants are small, the Lifshitz metric exhibits a null singularity in the IR with a large tidal force that excites string oscillator modes. However, Lifshitz is not a vacuum solution of the Einstein equations -- the metric is supported by nontrivial matter content which must be taken into account in analyzing the propagation of test objects. In this paper, we consider the interaction of a string with a D0-brane density in the IR which supports a class of UV-complete $z=2$ Lifshitz constructions. We show that string/D-brane scattering in the Regge limit slows the string significantly, preventing divergent mode production and resolving the would-be singularity in string propagation.Comment: 16 pages; v2: new references adde

Mesoscopic Anderson Box: Connecting Weak to Strong Coupling

Both the weakly coupled and strong coupling Anderson impurity problems are characterized by a Fermi-liquid theory with weakly interacting quasiparticles. In an Anderson box, mesoscopic fluctuations of the effective single particle properties will be large. We study how the statistical fluctuations at low temperature in these two problems are connected, using random matrix theory and the slave boson mean field approximation (SBMFA). First, for a resonant level model such as results from the SBMFA, we find the joint distribution of energy levels with and without the resonant level present. Second, if only energy levels within the Kondo resonance are considered, the distributions of perturbed levels collapse to universal forms for both orthogonal and unitary ensembles for all values of the coupling. These universal curves are described well by a simple Wigner-surmise type toy model. Third, we study the fluctuations of the mean field parameters in the SBMFA, finding that they are small. Finally, the change in the intensity of an eigenfunction at an arbitrary point is studied, such as is relevant in conductance measurements: we find that the introduction of the strongly-coupled impurity considerably changes the wave function but that a substantial correlation remains.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

The Third Law of Quantum Thermodynamics in the Presence of Anomalous Couplings

The quantum thermodynamic functions of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath through velocity-dependent coupling are obtained analytically. It is shown that both the free energy and the entropy decay fast with the temperature in relation to that of the usual coupling from. This implies that the velocity-dependent coupling helps to ensure the third law of thermodynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 22 conference