We study low-energy properties of the
N-fold degenerate Anderson model. Using a scaling that takes $u=(N\ensuremath{-}1)U$ as an independent variable in place of the Coulomb interaction
U, the perturbation series in
U is reorganized as an expansion in powers of $1/(N\ensuremath{-}1)$. We calculate the renormalized parameters, which characterize the Kondo state, to the next leading order in the $1/(N\ensuremath{-}1)$ expansion at half-filling. The results, especially the Wilson ratio, agree very closely with the exact numerical renormalization group results at
N=4. This ensures the applicability of our approach to
N>4, and we present highly reliable results for nonequilibrium Kondo transport through a quantum dot.
We apply a recently developed 1/( N − 1) expansion to the full-counting statistics for the N -fold degenerate Anderson impurity model in the Kondo regime. This approach is based on the perturbation theory in the Coulomb interaction U and is different from the conventional large- N theories, such as the usual 1/ N expansion and non-crossing approximation. We have confirmed that the calculations carried out up to order 1/( N − 1) 2 agree closely with those of the numerical renormalization group at N = 4, where the degeneracy is still not so large. This ensures the applicability of our approach for N ≥ 4. We present the results of the cumulants of the probability distribution function for a nonequilibrium current through a quantum dot in the particle-hole symmetric case.
We study the three-body Fermi liquid effects in the SU(
N) Anderson impurity model within the strong interaction limit $U\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, where the occupation number
Nd of the impurity levels varies over the range of
0<Nd<1. The three-body correlations arise among the impurity electrons when the electron-hole symmetry, the time-reversal symmetry, or both are broken by external fields or potentials. They play a key role in low-energy transport, particularly in the next-to-leading-order terms of power expansion with respect to temperature
T and bias voltage
eV. Using the numerical renormalization group approach, we calculate the differential conductance and nonlinear current noise through quantum dots, as well as the thermal conductivity of both quantum dots and magnetic alloys. Specifically, we focus on the SU(2) and SU(4) cases, demonstrating how the three-body correlations evolve in the strong interaction limit across the
1/N-filling Kondo regime at ${N}_{d}^{}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.0$ and the valence fluctuation regime where the occupation number
Nd varies rapidly with the position ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{d}^{}$ of the impurity levels. We also show that the three-body correlations strongly couple with asymmetries in the tunnel couplings between quantum dots and reservoirs. For
N=4, this coupling significantly affects the order
(eV)3 nonlinear current through the quarter-filling Kondo state, where the electron-hole symmetry is broken. In particular, in the $U\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, the expansion coefficients exhibit clear plateau structures associated with the Kondo effect at ${N}_{d}^{}\ensuremath{\simeq}1.0$. Our formulation and analysis pave the way for deducing the three-body correlations from the low-energy experiments on the next-to-leading-order transport.
The applicability of the Hartree-Fock and random phase approximations to models of strongly correlated electrons is discussed. The 2D Hubbard model is analyzed. An antiferromagnetic phase (at half filling) and Fermi liquid behavior (at low electron densities) are found. In addition, the system shows an unconventional regime near half filling. It is characterized by the formation of spin and charge textures. Local magnetic moments and spin waves are also present, and the quasiparticle pole at the Fermi energy vanishes. The charge excitation spectrum is gapless. The overall features resemble those of the 1D Luttinger liquid.
A general field-theoretical description of many-fermion systems, both with and without quenched disorder, is developed. Starting from the basic Grassmannian action for interacting fermions, we first bosonize the theory by introducing composite matrix variables that correspond to two-fermion excitations and integrating out the fermion degrees of freedom. The saddle-point solution of the resulting matrix field theory reproduces a disordered Hartree-Fock approximation, and an expansion to Gaussian order about the saddle point corresponds to a disordered random-phase approximation (RPA)-like theory. In the clean limit they reduce to the ordinary Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximations. We first concentrate on disordered systems, and perform a symmetry analysis that allows for a systematic separation of the massless modes from the massive ones. By treating the massive modes in a simple approximation, one obtains a technically satisfactory derivation of the generalized nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ model that has been used in the theory of metal-insulator transitions. The theory also allows for the treatment of other phase transitions in the disordered Fermi liquid. We further use renormalization group techniques to establish the existence of a disordered Fermi-liquid fixed point, and show that it is stable for all dimensions
d>2. The so-called weak-localization effects can be understood as corrections to scaling near this fixed point. The general theory also allows for studying the clean limit. For that case we develop a loop expansion that corresponds to an expansion in powers of the screened Coulomb interaction, and that represents a systematic improvement over RPA. We corroborate the existence of a Fermi-liquid fixed point that is stable for all dimensions
d>1, in agreement with other recent field-theoretical treatments of clean Fermi liquids.
We generalize Nozi\`eres' Fermi-liquid theory for the low-energy behavior of the Kondo model to that of the single-impurity Anderson model. In addition to the electrons' phase shift at the Fermi energy, the low-energy Fermi-liquid theory is characterized by four Fermi-liquid parameters: the two given by Nozi\`eres that enter to first order in the excitation energy, and two additional ones that enter to second order and are needed away from particle-hole symmetry. We express all four parameters in terms of zero-temperature physical observables, namely the local charge and spin susceptibilities and their derivatives with respect to the local level position. We determine these in terms of the bare parameters of the Anderson model using Bethe ansatz and numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculations. Our low-energy Fermi-liquid theory applies throughout the crossover from the strong-coupling Kondo regime via the mixed-valence regime to the empty-orbital regime. From the Fermi-liquid theory, we determine the conductance through a quantum dot symmetrically coupled to two leads in the regime of small magnetic field, low temperature, and small bias voltage, and compute the coefficients of the $\ensuremath{\sim}{B}^{2}, \ensuremath{\sim}{T}^{2}$, and $\ensuremath{\sim}{V}^{2}$ terms exactly in terms of the Fermi-liquid parameters. The coefficients of
T2,V2, and
B2 are found to change sign during the Kondo to empty-orbital crossover. The crossover becomes universal in the limit that the local interaction is much larger than the level width. For completeness, we also compute the shot noise and discuss the resulting Fano factor.