Van Hove singularities in the paramagnetic phase of the Hubbard model: a DMFT study

Using the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) we study the paramagnetic phase of the Hubbard model with the density of states (DOS) corresponding to the three-dimensional cubic lattice and the two-dimensional square lattice, as well as a DOS with inverse square root singularity. We show that the electron correlations rapidly smooth out the square-root van Hove singularities (kinks) in the spectral function for the 3D lattice and that the Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) as well as the magnetic-field-induced MIT differ only little from the well-known results for the Bethe lattice. The consequences of the logarithmic singularity in the DOS for the 2D lattice are more dramatic. At half filling, the divergence pinned at the Fermi level is not washed out, only its integrated weight decreases as the interaction is increased. While the Mott transition is still of the usual kind, the magnetic-field-induced MIT falls into a different universality class as there is no field-induced localization of quasiparticles. In the case of a power-law singularity in the DOS at the Fermi level, the power-law singularity persists in the presence of interaction, albeit with a different exponent, and the effective impurity model in the DMFT turns out to be a pseudo-gap Anderson impurity model with a hybridization function which vanishes at the Fermi level. The system is then a generalized Fermi liquid. At finite doping, regular Fermi liquid behavior is recovered.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

The Kondo effect in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study the temperature scale of the Kondo screening of a magnetic impurity which hybridizes with a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The problem is mapped to an effective single-band impurity model with a hybridization function having an inverse-square-root divergence at the bottom of the band. We study the effect of this divergence on the Kondo screening. The problem is solved numerically without further approximations using the numerical renormalization group technique. We find that the Rashba interaction leads to a small variation of the Kondo temperature (increase or decrease) which depends on the values of the impurity parameters

Quantum phase transitions in the systems of parallel quantum dots

We study the low-temperature transport properties of the systems of parallel quantum dots described by the N-impurity Anderson model. We calculate the quasiparticle scattering phase shifts, spectral functions and correlations as a function of the gate voltage for N up to 5. For any N, the conductance at the particle-hole symmetric point is unitary. For N >= 2, a transition from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic impurity spin correlations occurs at some gate voltage. For N >= 3, there is an additional transition due to an abrupt change in average impurity occupancy. For odd N, the conductance is discontinuous through both quantum phase transitions, while for even N only the magnetic transition affects the conductance. Similar effects should be experimentally observable in the systems of quantum dots with ferromagnetic conduction-band-mediated inter-dot exchange interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Spin-charge separation and simultaneous spin and charge Kondo effect

We study the spin-charge separation in a Kondo-like model for an impurity with a spin and a charge (isospin) degree of freedom coupled to a single conduction channel (the ``spin-charge'' Kondo model). We show that the spin and charge Kondo effects can occur simultaneously at any coupling strength. In the continuum (wide-band or weak coupling) limit, the Kondo screening in each sector is independent, while at finite bandwidth and strong coupling the lattice effects lead to a renormalization of the effective Kondo exchange constants; nevertheless, universal spin and charge Kondo effects still occur. We find similar behavior in the two-impurity Anderson model with positive and negative electron-electron interaction and in the two-impurity Anderson-Holstein model with a single phonon mode. We comment on the applicability of such models to describe the conductance of deformable molecules with a local magnetic moment.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure