597 research outputs found
Singular dynamics and pseudogap formation in the underscreened Kondo impurity and Kondo lattice models
We study a generalization of the Kondo model in which the impurity spin is
represented by Abrikosov fermions in a rotation group SU(P) larger than the
SU(N) group associated to the spin of the conduction electrons, thereby forcing
the single electronic bath to underscreen the localized moment. We demonstrate
how to formulate a controlled large N limit preserving the property of
underscreening, and which can be seen as a ``dual'' theory of the multichannel
large N equations usually associated to overscreening. Due to the anomalous
scattering on the uncompensated degrees of freedom, the Fermi liquid
description of the electronic fluid is invalidated, with the logarithmic
singularities known to occur in the S=1 SU(2) Kondo impurity model being
replaced by continuous power laws at N=\infty. The present technique can be
extended to tackle the related underscreened Kondo lattice model in the large N
limit. We discover the occurence of an insulating pseudogap regime in place of
the expected renormalized metallic phase of the fully screened case, preventing
the establishement of coherence over the lattice. This work and the recent
observation of a similar weakly insulating behavior on transport in CeCuAs_2
should give momentum for further studies of underscreened impurity models on
the lattice.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Several modifications in published version,
including new title, further details on the interpretation of the formalism
and possible experimental connection
Spin-orbital Kondo decoherence by environmental effects in capacitively coupled quantum dot devices
Strong correlation effects in a capacitively coupled double quantum-dot setup
were previously shown to provide the possibility of both entangling spin-charge
degrees of freedom and realizing efficient spin-filtering operations by static
gate-voltage manipulations. Motivated by the use of such a device for quantum
computing, we study the influence of electromagnetic noise on a general
spin-orbital Kondo model, and investigate the conditions for observing
coherent, unitary transport, crucial to warrant efficient spin manipulations.
We find a rich phase diagram, where low-energy properties sensitively depend on
the impedance of the external environment and geometric parameters of the
system. Relevant energy scales related to the Kondo temperature are also
computed in a renormalization-group treatment, allowing to assess the
robustness of the device against environmental effects.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. Minor modifications in V
Impact of disorder on unconventional superconductors with competing ground states
Non-magnetic impurities are known as strong pair breakers in superconductors
with pure d-wave pairing symmetry. Here we discuss d-wave states under the
combined influence of impurities and competing instabilities, such as pairing
in a secondary channel as well as lattice symmetry breaking. Using the
self-consistent T-matrix formalism, we show that disorder can strongly modify
the competition between different pairing states. For a d-wave superconductor
in the presence of a subdominant local attraction, Anderson's theorem implies
that disorder always generates an s-wave component in the gap at sufficiently
low temperature, even if a pure d_{x^2-y^2} order parameter characterizes the
clean system. In contrast, disorder is always detrimental to an additional
d_{xy} component. This qualitative difference suggests that disorder can be
used to discriminate among different mixed-gap structures in high-temperature
superconductors. We also investigate superconducting phases with lattice
symmetry breaking in the form of bond order, and show that the addition of
impurities quickly leads to the restoration of translation invariance. Our
results highlight the importance of controlling disorder for the observation of
competing order parameters in cuprates.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Universal transport signatures in two-electron molecular quantum dots: gate-tunable Hund's rule, underscreened Kondo effect and quantum phase transitions
We review here some universal aspects of the physics of two-electron
molecular transistors in the absence of strong spin-orbit effects. Several
recent quantum dots experiments have shown that an electrostatic backgate could
be used to control the energy dispersion of magnetic levels. We discuss how the
generically asymmetric coupling of the metallic contacts to two different
molecular orbitals can indeed lead to a gate-tunable Hund's rule in the
presence of singlet and triplet states in the quantum dot. For gate voltages
such that the singlet constitutes the (non-magnetic) ground state, one
generally observes a suppression of low voltage transport, which can yet be
restored in the form of enhanced cotunneling features at finite bias. More
interestingly, when the gate voltage is controlled to obtain the triplet
configuration, spin S=1 Kondo anomalies appear at zero-bias, with non-Fermi
liquid features related to the underscreening of a spin larger than 1/2.
Finally, the small bare singlet-triplet splitting in our device allows to
fine-tune with the gate between these two magnetic configurations, leading to
an unscreening quantum phase transition. This transition occurs between the
non-magnetic singlet phase, where a two-stage Kondo effect occurs, and the
triplet phase, where the partially compensated (underscreened) moment is akin
to a magnetically "ordered" state. These observations are put theoretically
into a consistent global picture by using new Numerical Renormalization Group
simulations, taylored to capture sharp finie-voltage cotunneling features
within the Coulomb diamonds, together with complementary out-of-equilibrium
diagrammatic calculations on the two-orbital Anderson model. This work should
shed further light on the complicated puzzle still raised by multi-orbital
extensions of the classic Kondo problem.Comment: Review article. 16 pages, 17 figures. Minor corrections and extra
references added in V
Interplay of electromagnetic noise and Kondo effect in quantum dots
We investigate the influence of an electromagnetic environment, characterized
by a finite impedance , on the Kondo effect in quantum dots. The
circuit voltage fluctuations couple to charge fluctuations in the dot and
influence the spin exchange processes transferring charge between the
electrodes. We discuss how the low-energy properties of a Kondo quantum dot
subject to dynamical Coulomb blockade resemble those of Kondo impurities in
Luttinger liquids. Using previous knowledge based on the bosonization of
quantum impurity models, we show that low-voltage conductance anomalies appear
at zero temperature. The conductance can vanish at low temperatures even in
presence of a screened impurity spin. Moreover, the quantitative determination
of the corresponding Kondo temperature depends on the full frequency-dependent
impedance of the circuit. This is demonstrated by a weak-coupling calculation
in the Kondo interaction, taking into account the full distribution of
excited environmental modes.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, revised version, new titl
Classical percolation fingerprints in the high-temperature regime of the integer quantum Hall effect
We have performed magnetotransport experiments in the high-temperature regime
(up to 50 K) of the integer quantum Hall effect for two-dimensional electron
gases in semiconducting heterostructures. While the magnetic field dependence
of the classical Hall law presents no anomaly at high temperatures, we find a
breakdown of the Drude-Lorentz law for the longitudinal conductance beyond a
crossover magnetic field B_c ~ 1 T, which turns out to be correlated with the
onset of the integer quantum Hall effect at low temperatures. We show that the
high magnetic field regime at B > B_c can be understood in terms of classical
percolative transport in a smooth disordered potential. From the temperature
dependence of the peak longitudinal conductance, we extract scaling exponents
which are in good agreement with the theoretically expected values. We also
prove that inelastic scattering on phonons is responsible for dissipation in a
wide temperature range going from 1 to 50 K at high magnetic fields.Comment: 14 pages + 8 Figure
Yeast Sgf73/Ataxin-7 serves to anchor the deubiquitination module into both SAGA and Slik(SALSA) HAT complexes
Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a physically devastating, genetically inherited disorder characterized by abnormal brain function that results in the progressive loss of the ability to coordinate movements. There are many types of SCAs as there are various gene mutations that can cause this disease. SCA types 1–3, 6–10, 12, and 17 result from a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the DNA-coding sequence. Intriguingly, recent work has demonstrated that increased trinucleotde expansions in the SCA7 gene result in defect in the function of the SAGA histone acetyltransferase complex. The SCA7 gene encodes a subunit of the SAGA complex. This subunit is conserved in yeast as the SGF73 gene. We demonstrate that Sgf73 is required to recruit the histone deubiquitination module into both SAGA and the related SliK(SALSA) complex, and to maintain levels of histone ubiquitination, which is necessary for regulation of transcription at a number of genes
Self-consistent description of Andreev bound states in Josephson quantum dot devices
We develop a general perturbative framework based on a superconducting atomic
limit for the description of Andreev bound states (ABS) in interacting quantum
dots connected to superconducting leads. A local effective Hamiltonian for
dressed ABS, including both the atomic (or molecular) levels and the induced
proximity effect on the dot is argued to be a natural starting point. A
self-consistent expansion in single-particle tunneling events is shown to
provide accurate results even in regimes where the superconducting gap is
smaller than the atomic energies, as demonstrated by a comparison to recent
Numerical Renormalization Group calculations. This simple formulation may have
bearings for interpreting Andreev spectroscopic experiments in superconducting
devices, such as STM measurements on carbon nanotubes, or radiative emission in
optical quantum dots.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Last version: we added several extra
references, modified two figures, and discussed recent proposals for Andreev
spectroscop
Combinatorial depletion analysis to assemble the network architecture of the SAGA and ADA chromatin remodeling complexes
A combinatorial depletion strategy is combined with biochemistry, quantitative proteomics and computational approaches to elucidate the structure of the SAGA/ADA complexes. The analysis reveals five connected functional modules capable of independent assembly
Quantum impurity solvers using a slave rotor representation
We introduce a representation of electron operators as a product of a
spin-carry ing fermion and of a phase variable dual to the total charge (slave
quantum rotor). Based on this representation, a new method is proposed for
solving multi-orbital Anderson quantum impurity models at finite interaction
strength U. It consists in a set of coupled integral equations for the
auxiliary field Green's functions, which can be derived from a controlled
saddle-point in the limit of a large number of field components. In contrast to
some finite-U extensions of the non-crossing approximation, the new method
provides a smooth interpolation between the atomic limit and the weak-coupling
limit, and does not display violation of causality at low-frequency. We
demonstrate that this impurity solver can be applied in the context of
Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, at or close to half-filling. Good agreement with
established results on the Mott transition is found, and large values of the
orbital degeneracy can be investigated at low computational cost.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figure
- …