We find the emergence of strong correlations and universality on the approach to the quantum critical points of a two-impurity Anderson model. The two impurities are coupled by an interimpurity exchange interaction J and direct interaction U{12} and are hybridized with separate conduction channels. The low energy behavior is described in terms of renormalized parameters. We show that on the approach to the transitions to a local singlet and a local charged ordered state, the quasiparticle weight factor z→0, and the renormalized parameters can be expressed in terms of a single energy scale T{*}. The values of the renormalized interaction parameters in terms of T{*} can be predicted from the condition of continuity of the spin and charge susceptibilities, and correspond to strong correlation. These predictions are confirmed by the numerical renormalization group calculations, including the case when the on site interaction U=0.
We find the emergence of strong correlations and universality on the approach to the quantum critical points of a two-impurity Anderson model. The two impurities are coupled by an interimpurity exchange interaction J and direct interaction U{12} and are hybridized with separate conduction channels. The low energy behavior is described in terms of renormalized parameters. We show that on the approach to the transitions to a local singlet and a local charged ordered state, the quasiparticle weight factor z→0, and the renormalized parameters can be expressed in terms of a single energy scale T{}. The values of the renormalized interaction parameters in terms of T{} can be predicted from the condition of continuity of the spin and charge susceptibilities, and correspond to strong correlation. These predictions are confirmed by the numerical renormalization group calculations, including the case when the on site interaction U=0.
We apply a combination of numerical renormalization group (NRG) and renormalized perturbation theory (RPT) to a model of two quantum dots (impurities) described by two Anderson impurity models hybridized to their respective baths. The dots are coupled via a direct Coulomb interaction U12 and a spin exchange interaction J. The model has two types of quantum critical points, one at J=Jc to a local singlet state and one at U12=U12c to a locally charge ordered state. The renormalized parameters which determine the low energy behavior are calculated from the NRG. The results confirm the values predicted from the RPT on the approach to the critical points, which can be expressed in terms of a single energy scale T∗ in all cases. This includes cases without particle-hole symmetry, and cases with asymmetry between the dots, where there is also a transition at J=Jc. The results give a comprehensive quantitative picture of the behavior of the model in the low energy Fermi liquid regimes, and some of the conclusions regarding the emergence of a single energy scale may apply to a more general class of quantum critical points, such as those observed in some heavy fermion systems.
We show that the RKKY interaction in the two-impurity Anderson model comprise two contributions: a ferromagnetic part stemming from the symmetrized hybridization functions and an antiferromagnetic part. We demonstrate that this antiferromagnetic contribution can also be generated by an effective local tunneling term between the two impurities. This tunneling can be analytically calculated for particle-hole symmetric impurities. Replacing the full hybridization functions by the symmetric part and this tunneling term leads to the identical low-temperature fixed point spectrum in the numerical renormalization group. Compensating this tunneling term allows us to restore the Varma-Jones quantum critical point between a strong-coupling phase and a local singlet phase even in the absence of particle-hole symmetry in the hybridization functions. We analytically investigate the spatial frequencies of the effective tunneling term based on the combination of the band dispersion and the shape of the Fermi surface. Numerical renormalization group calculations provide a comparison of the distance-dependent tunneling term and the local spin-spin correlation function. Deviations between the spatial dependency of the full spin-spin correlation function and the textbook RKKY interaction are reported.
We study a pseudogap Anderson-Holstein model of a magnetic impurity level that hybridizes with a conduction band whose density of states vanishes in power-law fashion at the Fermi energy, and couples, via its charge, to a nondispersive bosonic mode (e.g., an optical phonon). The model, which we treat using poor-man's scaling and the numerical renormalization group, exhibits quantum phase transitions of different types depending on the strength of the impurity-boson coupling. For weak impurity-boson coupling, the suppression of the density of states near the Fermi energy leads to quantum phase transitions between strong-coupling (Kondo) and local-moment phases. For sufficiently strong impurity-boson coupling, however, the bare repulsion between a pair of electrons in the impurity level becomes an effective attraction, leading to quantum phase transitions between strong-coupling (charge Kondo) and local-charge phases. Even though the Hamiltonian exhibits different symmetries in the spin and charge sectors, the thermodynamic properties near the two types of quantum phase transition are closely related under spin-charge interchange. Moreover, the critical responses to a local magnetic field (for small impurity-boson coupling) and to an electric potential (for large impurity-boson coupling) are characterized by the same exponents, whose values place these quantum-critical points in the universality class of the pseudogap Anderson model. One specific case of the pseudogap Anderson-Holstein model may be realized in a double-quantum-dot device, where the quantum phase transitions manifest themselves in the finite-temperature linear electrical conductance.
We study the competition between Kondo physics and dissipation within an Anderson model of a magnetic impurity level that hybridizes with a metallic host and is also coupled, via the impurity charge, to the displacement of a bosonic bath having a spectral density proportional to ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{s}$. As the impurity-bath coupling increases from zero, the effective Coulomb interaction between two electrons in the impurity level is progressively renormalized from its repulsive bare value until it eventually becomes attractive. For weak hybridization, this renormalization in turn produces a crossover from a conventional spin-sector Kondo effect to a charge Kondo effect. At particle-hole symmetry, and for sub-Ohmic bath exponents 0<s<1, further increase in the impurity-bath coupling results in a continuous zero-temperature transition to a broken-symmetry phase in which the ground-state impurity occupancy ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{n}}_{d}$ acquires an expectation value ${⟨{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{n}}_{d}⟩}_{0}\ensuremath{\ne}1$. The response of the impurity occupancy to a locally applied electric potential features the hyperscaling of critical exponents and $\ensuremath{\omega}∕T$ scaling that are expected at an interacting critical point. The numerical values of the critical exponents suggest that the transition lies in the same universality class as that of the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model. For the Ohmic case s=1, the transition is instead of Kosterlitz-Thouless type. Away from particle-hole symmetry, the quantum phase transition is replaced by a smooth crossover but signatures of the symmetric quantum critical point remain in the physical properties at elevated temperatures and/or frequencies.
The problem of two magnetic impurities in a normal metal exposes the two opposite tendencies in the formation of a singlet ground state, driven respectively by the single-ion Kondo effect with conduction electrons to screen impurity spins or the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction between the two impurities to directly form impurity spin singlet. However, whether the competition between these two tendencies can lead to a quantum critical point has been debated over more than two decades. Here, we study this problem by applying the newly proposed natural orbitals renormalization group method to a lattice version of the two-impurity Kondo model with a direct exchange K between the two impurity spins. The method allows for unbiased access to the ground state wave functions and low-lying excitations for sufficiently large system sizes. We demonstrate the existence of a quantum critical point, characterized by the power-law divergence of impurity staggered susceptibility with critical exponent $\ensuremath{\gamma}=0.60(1)$, on the antiferromagnetic side of K when the interimpurity distance R is even lattice spacing, while a crossover behavior is recovered when R is odd lattice spacing. These results have ultimately resolved the long-standing discrepancy between the numerical renormalization group and quantum Monte Carlo studies, confirming a link of this two-impurity Kondo critical point to a hidden particle-hole symmetry predicted by the local Fermi liquid theory.
We investigate a model of two Kondo impurities coupled via an Ising interaction. Exploiting the mapping to a generalized single-impurity Anderson model, we establish that the model has a singlet and a (pseudospin) doublet phase separated by a Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum phase transition. Based on a strong-coupling analysis and renormalization-group arguments, we show that at this transition the conductance G through the system either displays a zero-bias anomaly, $G\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\mid}V\ensuremath{\mid}}^{\ensuremath{-}2(\sqrt{2}\ensuremath{-}1)}$, or takes a universal value, $G=({e}^{2}∕\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\hbar}){\mathrm{cos}}^{2}(\ensuremath{\pi}∕2\sqrt{2})$, depending on the experimental setup. Close to the Toulouse point of the individual Kondo impurities, the strong-coupling analysis allows us to obtain the location of the phase boundary analytically. For general model parameters, we determine the phase diagram and investigate the thermodynamics using numerical renormalization-group calculations. In the singlet phase close to the quantum phase transition, the entropy is quenched in two steps: first the two Ising-coupled spins form a magnetic minidomain which is, in a second step, screened by a Kondoesque collective resonance in an effective solitonic Fermi sea. In addition, we present a flow-equation analysis which provides a different mapping of the two-impurity model to a generalized single-impurity Anderson model in terms of fully renormalized couplings, which is applicable for the whole range of model parameters.