Kondo physics in a dissipative environment

We report nonperturbative results for the interacting quantum-critical behavior in a Bose-Fermi Kondo model describing a spin-1/2 coupled both to a fermionic band with a pseudogap density of states and to a dissipative bosonic bath. The model serves as a paradigm for studying the interplay between Kondo physics and low-energy dissipative modes in strongly correlated systems.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. Proceedings of The International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES'07), accepted for publication in Physica

Magnetoresistance of Pr1−x_{1-x}Lax_xOs4_4Sb12_{12}: Disentangling local crystalline-electric-field physics and lattice effects

Resistivity measurements were performed on Pr$_{1-x}$La$_x$Os$_4$Sb$_{12}$ single crystals at temperatures down to 20 mK and in fields up to 18 T. The results for dilute-Pr samples ($x=0.3$ and 0.67) are consistent with model calculations performed assuming a singlet crystalline-electric-field (CEF) ground state. The residual resistivity of these crystals features a smeared step centered around 9 T, the predicted crossing field for the lowest CEF levels. The CEF contribution to the magnetoresistance has a weaker-than-calculated dependence on the field direction, suggesting that interactions omitted from the CEF model lead to avoided crossing in the effective levels of the Pr$^{3+}$ ion. The dome-shaped magnetoresistance observed for $x = 0$ and 0.05 cannot be reproduced by the CEF model, and likely results from fluctuations in the field-induced antiferroquadrupolar phase

Renormalization-group study of a magnetic impurity in a Luttinger liquid

A generalized Anderson model for a magnetic impurity in an interacting one-dimensional electron gas is studied via a mapping onto a classical Coulomb gas. For weak potential scattering, the local-moment parameter regime expands as repulsive bulk interactions become stronger, but the Kondo scale for the quenching of the impurity moment varies nonmonotonically. There also exist two regimes dominated by backward potential scattering: one in which the impurity is nonmagnetic, and another in which an unquenched local moment survives down to very low temperatures.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages, 3 epsf-embedded EPS figure

Temperature-dependent "phason" elasticity in a random tiling quasicrystal

Both ``phason'' elastic constants have been measured from Monte Carlo simulations of a random-tiling icosahedral quasicrystal model with a Hamiltonian. The low-temperature limit approximates the ``canonical-cell'' tiling used to describe several real quasicrystals. The elastic constant K2 changes sign from positive to negative with decreasing temperature; in the ``canonical-cell'' limit, K2/K1 appears to approach -0.7, about the critical value for a phason-mode modulation instability. We compare to the experiments on i-AlPdMn and i-AlCuFe.Comment: 5 pages, 2 Postscript figures, LaTeX, uses revtex4, submitted to PR

Quantum phase transitions into Kondo states in bilayer graphene

We study a magnetic impurity intercalated in bilayer graphene. A representative configuration generates a hybridization function with strong dependence on the conduction-electron energy, including a full gap with one hard and one soft edge. Shifts of the chemical potential via gating or doping drive the system between non-Kondo (free-moment) and Kondo-screened phases, with strong variation of the Kondo scale. Quantum phase transitions near the soft edge are of Kosterlitz-Thouless type, while others are first order. Near the hard edge, a bound-state singlet appears inside the gap; although of single-particle character, its signatures in scanning tunneling spectroscopy are very similar to those arising from a many-body Kondo resonance

Large-N limit of a magnetic impurity in unconventional density waves

We investigate the effect of unconventional density wave (UDW) condensate on an Anderson impurity using large-N technique at T=0. In accordance with previous treatments of a Kondo impurity in pseudogap phases, we find that Kondo effect occurs only in a certain range of parameters. The f-electron density of states reflects the influence of UDW at low energies and around the maximum of the density wave gap. The static spin susceptibility diverges at the critical coupling, indicating the transition from strong to weak coupling. In the dynamic spin susceptibility an additional peak appears showing the presence the UDW gap. Predictions concerning non-linear density of states are made. Our results apply to other unconventional condensates such as d-wave superconductors and d-density waves as well.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Two-state behaviour of Kondo trimers

The electronic properties and spectroscopic features of a magnetic trimer with a Kondo-like coupling to a non-magnetic metallic substrate are analyzed at zero temperature. The substrate density of states is depressed in the trimer neighbourhood, being exactly zero at the substrate chemical potential. The size of the resonance strongly depends on the magnetic state of the trimer, and exhibits a two-state behavior. The geometrical dependence of these results agree qualitatively with recent experiments and could be reproduced in a triangular quantum dot arrangement.Comment: 5 pages, including 4 figure

Solution of the two impurity, two channel Kondo Model

We solve the two-impurity two-channel Kondo model using a combination of conformal invariance and bosonisation techniques. The odd-even symmetric case is analysed in detail. The RKKY interaction turns out to be exactly marginal, resulting in a line of non-Fermi liquid fixed points. Explicit formulae are given for the critical exponents and for the finite-size spectrum, which depend continuously on a single parameter. The marginal line spans a range of values of the RKKY coupling $I$ which goes from the infinitely strong ferromagnetic point $I=-\infty$ (associated with a 4-channel spin-1 Kondo model) to a finite antiferromagnetic critical value $I_c>0$ beyond which a Fermi liquid is recovered. We also find that, when the odd-even symmetry is broken, the marginal line is unstable for ferromagnetic $I$, while for antiferromagnetic $I$ it extends into a manifold of fixed points.Comment: 9 pages, preprint LPTENS 94/1

Numerical Renormalization Group for Quantum Impurities in a Bosonic Bath

We present a detailed description of the recently proposed numerical renormalization group method for models of quantum impurities coupled to a bosonic bath. Specifically, the method is applied to the spin-boson model, both in the Ohmic and sub-Ohmic cases. We present various results for static as well as dynamic quantities and discuss details of the numerical implementation, e.g., the discretization of a bosonic bath with arbitrary continuous spectral density, the suitable choice of a finite basis in the bosonic Hilbert space, and questions of convergence w.r.t. truncation parameters. The method is shown to provide high-accuracy data over the whole range of model parameters and temperatures, which are in agreement with exact results and other numerical data from the literature.Comment: 23 pages, 21 figures; three references and one figure adde