Giant mass and anomalous mobility of particles in fermionic systems

We calculate the mobility of a heavy particle coupled to a Fermi sea within a non-perturbative approach valid at all temperatures. The interplay of particle recoil and of strong coupling effects, leading to the orthogonality catastrophe for an infinitely heavy particle, is carefully taken into account. We find two novel types of strong coupling effects: a new low energy scale $T^{\star}$ and a giant mass renormalization in the case of either near-resonant scattering or a large transport cross section $\sigma$. The mobility is shown to obey two different power laws below and above $T^{\star}$. For $\sigma\gg\lambda_f^2$, where $\lambda_f$ is the Fermi wave length, an exponentially large effective mass suppresses the mobility.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Mechanisms of decoherence in weakly anisotropic molecular magnets

Decoherence mechanisms in crystals of weakly anisotropic magnetic molecules, such as V15, are studied. We show that an important decohering factor is the rapid thermal fluctuation of dipolar interactions between magnetic molecules. A model is proposed to describe the influence of this source of decoherence. Based on the exact solution of this model, we show that at relatively high temperatures, about 0.5 K, the quantum coherence in a V15 molecule is not suppressed, and, in principle, can be detected experimentally. Therefore, these molecules may be suitable prototype systems for study of physical processes taking place in quantum computers.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 1 figure (PostScript

Quantum Relaxation of Magnetisation in Magnetic Particles

At temperatures below the magnetic anisotropy energy, monodomain magnetic systems (small particles, nanomagnetic devices, etc.) must relax quantum mechanically. This quantum relaxation must be mediated by the coupling to both nuclear spins and phonons (and electrons if either particle or substrate is conducting. We analyze the effect of each of these couplings, and then combine them. Conducting systems can be modelled by a "giant Kondo" Hamiltonian, with nuclear spins added in as well. At low temperatures, even microscopic particles on a conducting substrate (containing only $10-50$ spins) will have their magnetisation frozen over millenia by a combination of electronic dissipation and the "degeneracy blocking" caused by nuclear spins. Raising the temperature leads to a sudden unblocking of the spin dynamics at a well defined temperature. Insulating systems are quite different. The relaxation is strongly enhanced by the coupling to nuclear spins. At short times the magnetisation of an ensemble of particles relaxes logarithmically in time, after an initial very fast decay; this relaxation proceeds entirely via the nuclear spins. At longer times phonons take over, but the decay rate is still governed by the temperature-dependent nuclear bias field acting on the particles - decay may be exponential or power-law depending on the temperature. The most surprising feature of the results is the pivotal role played by the nuclear spins. The results are relevant to any experiments on magnetic particles in which interparticle dipolar interactions are unimportant. They are also relevant to future magnetic device technology.Comment: 30 pages, RevTex, e:mail , Submitted to J.Low Temp.Phys. on 1 Nov. 199

Friedel oscillations for interacting fermions in one dimension

We study Friedel oscillations in one-dimensional electron liquid for arbitrary electron-electron interaction and arbitrary impurity strength. For Luttinger liquid leads, the Friedel oscillations decay as x^-g far away from the impurity, where g is the interaction constant. For a weak scatterer, a slower decay is found at intermediate distances from the impurity, with a crossover to the asymptotic x^-g law.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, includes two figure

Bosons in optical lattices - from the Mott transition to the Tonks-Girardeau gas

We present results from quantum Monte Carlo simulations of trapped bosons in optical lattices, focusing on the crossover from a gas of softcore bosons to a Tonks-Girardeau gas in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We find that depending on the quantity being measured, the behavior found in the Tonks-Girardeau regime is observed already at relatively small values of the interaction strength. A finite critical value for entering the Tonks-Girardeau regime does not exist. Furthermore, we discuss the computational efficiency of two quantum Monte Carlo methods to simulate large scale trapped bosonic systems: directed loops in stochastic series expansions and the worm algorithm.Comment: 7 pages with 9 figures;v2: improved discussion on Tonks-Girardeau ga

Macroscopic Quantum Coherence in a Magnetic Nanoparticle Above the Surface of a Superconductor

We study macroscopic quantum tunneling of the magnetic moment in a single-domain particle placed above the surface of a superconductor. Such a setup allows one to manipulate the height of the energy barrier, preserving the degeneracy of the ground state. The tunneling amplitude and the effect of the dissipation in the superconductor are computed.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 1 figure. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Exact Critical Properties of the Multi-Component Interacting Fermion Model with Boundaries

Exact critical properties of the one-dimensional SU($N$) interacting fermion model with open boundaries are studied by using the Bethe ansatz method. We derive the surface critical exponents of various correlation functions using boundary conformal field theory. They are classified into two types, i.e. the exponents for the chiral SU($N$) Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid and those related to the orthogonality catastrophe. We discuss a possible application of the results to the photoemission (absorption) in the edge state of the fractional quantum Hall effect.Comment: 17 pages, RevTe

Kondo Problems in Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids

Quantum impurity problems in Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLLs) are reviewed with emphasis on their analogy to the Kondo problem in Fermi liquids. First, the problem of a static impurity in a spinless TLL is considered, which is related to the model studied in the context of the macroscopic quantum coherence. In the low-energy limit the TLL is essentially cut into two pieces when interaction is repulsive. The orthogonality catastrophe in a TLL is then discussed. Finally, the Kondo effect of a spin-1/2 impurity in a one-dimensional repulsively interacting electron liquids (a spinful TLL) is reviewed. Regardless of the sign of the exchange coupling, the impury spin is completely screened in the ground state. The leading low-temperature contributions to thermodynamic quantities come from boundary contributions of a bulk leading irrelevant operator.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to a special edition of JPSJ "Kondo Effect -- 40 Years after the Discovery"; corrected typos, added reference

Suppression of decoherence via strong intra-environmental coupling

We examine the effects of intra-environmental coupling on decoherence by constructing a low temperature spin--spin-bath model of an atomic impurity in a Debye crystal. The impurity interacts with phonons of the crystal through anti-ferromagnetic spin-spin interactions. The reduced density matrix of the central spin representing the impurity is calculated by dynamically integrating the full Schroedinger equation for the spin--spin-bath model for different thermally weighted eigenstates of the spin-bath. Exact numerical results show that increasing the intra-environmental coupling results in suppression of decoherence. This effect could play an important role in the construction of solid state quantum devices such as quantum computers.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Revtex fil