54 research outputs found
Black Hole Thermodynamics and Heavy Fermion Metals
Heavy fermion alloys at critical doping typically exhibit non-Fermi-liquid
behavior at low temperatures, including a logarithmic or power law rise in the
ratio of specific heat to temperature as the temperature is lowered. Anomalous
specific heat of this type is also observed in a simple class of gravitational
dual models that exhibit anisotropic scaling with dynamical critical exponent z
> 1.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures; v2: added references; v3: matches published
versio
Instability of the Fermi-liquid fixed point in an extended Kondo model
We study an extended SU(N) single-impurity Kondo model in which the impurity
spin is described by a combination of Abrikosov fermions and Schwinger bosons.
Our aim is to describe both the quasiparticle-like excitations and the locally
critical modes observed in various physical situations, including non-Fermi
liquid (NFL) behavior in heavy fermions in the vicinity of a quantum critical
point and anomalous transport properties in quantum wires. In contrast with
models with either pure bosonic or pure fermionic impurities, the strong
coupling fixed point is unstable against the conduction electron kinetic term
under certain conditions. The stability region of the strong coupling fixed
point coincides with the region where the partially screened, effective
impurity repels the electrons on adjacent sites. In the instability region, the
impurity tends to attract electrons to the neighboring sites, giving
rise to a double-stage Kondo effect with additional screening of the impurity.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the NATO Workshop on "Concepts in
Electron Correlations", Hvar,October 200
Thermodynamic analysis of the Quantum Critical behavior of Ce-lattice compounds
A systematic analysis of low temperature magnetic phase diagrams of Ce
compounds is performed in order to recognize the thermodynamic conditions to be
fulfilled by those systems to reach a quantum critical regime and,
alternatively, to identify other kinds of low temperature behaviors. Based on
specific heat () and entropy () results, three different types of
phase diagrams are recognized: i) with the entropy involved into the ordered
phase () decreasing proportionally to the ordering temperature
(), ii) those showing a transference of degrees of freedom from the
ordered phase to a non-magnetic component, with their jump
() vanishing at finite temperature, and iii) those ending in a
critical point at finite temperature because their do not decrease
with producing an entropy accumulation at low temperature.
Only those systems belonging to the first case, i.e. with as
, can be regarded as candidates for quantum critical behavior.
Their magnetic phase boundaries deviate from the classical negative curvature
below \,K, denouncing frequent misleading extrapolations down to
T=0. Different characteristic concentrations are recognized and analyzed for
Ce-ligand alloyed systems. Particularly, a pre-critical region is identified,
where the nature of the magnetic transition undergoes significant
modifications, with its discontinuity strongly
affected by magnetic field and showing an increasing remnant entropy at . Physical constraints arising from the third law at are discussed
and recognized from experimental results
Gauss-Bonnet Black Holes and Heavy Fermion Metals
We consider charged black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity with
Lifshitz boundary conditions. We find that this class of models can reproduce
the anomalous specific heat of condensed matter systems exhibiting
non-Fermi-liquid behaviour at low temperatures. We find that the temperature
dependence of the Sommerfeld ratio is sensitive to the choice of Gauss-Bonnet
coupling parameter for a given value of the Lifshitz scaling parameter. We
propose that this class of models is dual to a class of models of
non-Fermi-liquid systems proposed by Castro-Neto et.al.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, pdfLatex; small corrections to figure 10 in this
versio
Incoherent non-Fermi liquid scattering in a Kondo lattice
One of the most notorious non-Fermi liquid properties of both archetypal
heavy-fermion systems [1-4] and the high-Tc copper oxide superconductors [5] is
an electrical resistivity that evolves linearly with temperature, T. In the
heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 [5], this linear behaviour was one of the
first indications of the presence of a zero-temperature instability, or quantum
critical point. Here, we report the observation of a unique control parameter
of T-linear scattering in CeCoIn5, found through systematic chemical
substitutions of both magnetic and non-magnetic rare-earth, R, ions into the Ce
sub-lattice. We find that the evolution of inelastic scattering in Ce1-xRxCoIn5
is strongly dependent on the f-electron configuration of the R ion, whereas two
other key properties -- Cooper-pair breaking and Kondo-lattice coherence -- are
not. Thus, T-linear resistivity in CeCoIn5 is intimately related to the nature
of incoherent scattering centers in the Kondo lattice, which provides insight
into the anomalous scattering rate synonymous with quantum criticality [7].Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (published version
Stellar spectroscopy: Fermions and holographic Lifshitz criticality
Electron stars are fluids of charged fermions in Anti-de Sitter spacetime.
They are candidate holographic duals for gauge theories at finite charge
density and exhibit emergent Lifshitz scaling at low energies. This paper
computes in detail the field theory Green's function G^R(w,k) of the
gauge-invariant fermionic operators making up the star. The Green's function
contains a large number of closely spaced Fermi surfaces, the volumes of which
add up to the total charge density in accordance with the Luttinger count.
Excitations of the Fermi surfaces are long lived for w <~ k^z. Beyond w ~ k^z
the fermionic quasiparticles dissipate strongly into the critical Lifshitz
sector. Fermions near this critical dispersion relation give interesting
contributions to the optical conductivity.Comment: 38 pages + appendices. 9 figure
Quantum Tricritical Points in NbFe
Quantum critical points (QCPs) emerge when a 2nd order phase transition is
suppressed to zero temperature. In metals the quantum fluctuations at such a
QCP can give rise to new phases including unconventional superconductivity.
Whereas antiferromagnetic QCPs have been studied in considerable detail
ferromagnetic (FM) QCPs are much harder to access. In almost all metals FM QCPs
are avoided through either a change to 1st order transitions or through an
intervening spin-density-wave (SDW) phase. Here, we study the prototype of the
second case, NbFe. We demonstrate that the phase diagram can be modelled
using a two-order-parameter theory in which the putative FM QCP is buried
within a SDW phase. We establish the presence of quantum tricritical points
(QTCPs) at which both the uniform and finite susceptibility diverge. The
universal nature of our model suggests that such QTCPs arise naturally from the
interplay between SDW and FM order and exist generally near a buried FM QCP of
this type. Our results promote NbFe as the first example of a QTCP, which
has been proposed as a key concept in a range of narrow-band metals, including
the prominent heavy-fermion compound YbRhSi.Comment: 21 pages including S
Interplay of quantum and classical fluctuations near quantum critical points
For a system near a quantum critical point (QCP), above its lower critical
dimension , there is in general a critical line of second order phase
transitions that separates the broken symmetry phase at finite temperatures
from the disordered phase. The phase transitions along this line are governed
by thermal critical exponents that are different from those associated with the
quantum critical point. We point out that, if the effective dimension of the
QCP, ( is the Euclidean dimension of the system and the
dynamic quantum critical exponent) is above its upper critical dimension ,
there is an intermingle of classical (thermal) and quantum critical
fluctuations near the QCP. This is due to the breakdown of the generalized
scaling relation between the shift exponent of the critical
line and the crossover exponent , for by a \textit{dangerous
irrelevant interaction}. This phenomenon has clear experimental consequences,
like the suppression of the amplitude of classical critical fluctuations near
the line of finite temperature phase transitions as the critical temperature is
reduced approaching the QCP.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Brazilian Journal of Physic
Quantum Criticality in Heavy Fermion Metals
Quantum criticality describes the collective fluctuations of matter
undergoing a second-order phase transition at zero temperature. Heavy fermion
metals have in recent years emerged as prototypical systems to study quantum
critical points. There have been considerable efforts, both experimental and
theoretical, which use these magnetic systems to address problems that are
central to the broad understanding of strongly correlated quantum matter. Here,
we summarize some of the basic issues, including i) the extent to which the
quantum criticality in heavy fermion metals goes beyond the standard theory of
order-parameter fluctuations, ii) the nature of the Kondo effect in the quantum
critical regime, iii) the non-Fermi liquid phenomena that accompany quantum
criticality, and iv) the interplay between quantum criticality and
unconventional superconductivity.Comment: (v2) 39 pages, 8 figures; shortened per the editorial mandate; to
appear in Nature Physics. (v1) 43 pages, 8 figures; Non-technical review
article, intended for general readers; the discussion part contains more
specialized topic
Gapless spin liquid of an organic triangular compound evidenced by thermodynamic measurements
In frustrated magnetic systems, long-range ordering is forbidden and degeneracy of energy states persists, even at extremely low temperatures. Under certain conditions, these systems form an exotic quantum spin-liquid ground state, in which strongly correlated spins fluctuate in the spin lattices. Here we investigate the thermodynamic properties of an anion radical spin liquid of EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2, where dmit represents 1,3-dithiole-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate. This compound is an organic dimer-based Mott insulator with a two-dimensional triangular lattice structure. We present distinct evidence for the formation of a gapless spin liquid by examining the T-linear heat capacity coefficient, γ , in the low-temperature heat capacity. Using comparative analyses with κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3, a generalized picture of the new spin liquid in dimer-based organic systems is discussed. We also report anomalous enhancement of γ, produced by a kind of criticality inherent to the Pd(dmit)2 phase diagram
- …