We propose that real-space properties of the two-impurity Kondo model can be obtained from an effective spin model where two single-impurity Kondo spin chains are joined via an Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction between the two impurity spins. We then use a density matrix renormalization group approach, valid in all ranges of parameters, to study its features using two complementary quantum-entanglement measures, the negativity and the von Neumann entropy. This nonperturbative approach enables us to uncover the precise dependence of the spatial extent ξ(K) of the Kondo screening cloud with the Kondo and RKKY couplings. Our results reveal an exponential suppression of the Kondo temperature T(K)~1/ξ(K) with the size of the effective impurity spin in the limit of large ferromagnetic RKKY coupling, a striking display of "Kondo resonance narrowing" in the two-impurity Kondo model. We also show how the antiferromagnetic RKKY interaction produces an effective decoupling of the impurities from the bulk already for intermediate strengths of this interaction, and, furthermore, exhibit how the non-Fermi liquid quantum critical point is signaled in the quantum entanglement between various parts of the system.
We propose that real-space properties of the two-impurity Kondo model can be obtained from an effective spin model where two single-impurity Kondo spin chains are joined via an Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction between the two impurity spins. We then use a density matrix renormalization group approach, valid in all ranges of parameters, to study its features using two complementary quantum-entanglement measures, the negativity and the von Neumann entropy. This nonperturbative approach enables us to uncover the precise dependence of the spatial extent ξ(K) of the Kondo screening cloud with the Kondo and RKKY couplings. Our results reveal an exponential suppression of the Kondo temperature T(K)~1/ξ(K) with the size of the effective impurity spin in the limit of large ferromagnetic RKKY coupling, a striking display of "Kondo resonance narrowing" in the two-impurity Kondo model. We also show how the antiferromagnetic RKKY interaction produces an effective decoupling of the impurities from the bulk already for intermediate strengths of this interaction, and, furthermore, exhibit how the non-Fermi liquid quantum critical point is signaled in the quantum entanglement between various parts of the system.
In order to quantify quantum entanglement in two-impurity Kondo systems, we calculate the concurrence, negativity, and von Neumann entropy. The entanglement of the two Kondo impurities is shown to be determined by two competing many-body effects, namely the Kondo effect and the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction, I. Due to the spin-rotational invariance of the ground state, the concurrence and negativity are uniquely determined by the spin-spin correlation between the impurities. It is found that there exists a critical minimum value of the antiferromagnetic correlation between the impurity spins which is necessary for entanglement of the two impurity spins. The critical value is discussed in relation with the unstable fixed point in the two-impurity Kondo problem. Specifically, at the fixed point there is no entanglement between the impurity spins. Entanglement will only be created [and quantum information processing (QIP) will only be possible] if the RKKY interaction exchange energy, I, is at least several times larger than the Kondo temperature, TK. Quantitative criteria for QIP are given in terms of the impurity spin-spin correlation.
We propose a model of a strongly-interacting two-impurity Kondo system based on the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, also known as holography. In a Landau Fermi Liquid, the single-impurity Kondo effect is the screening of an impurity spin at low temperature T . The two-impurity Kondo model then describes the competition between the Kondo interaction and the Heisenberg interaction between two impurity spins, also called the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction. For spin-1/2 impurities, that competition leads to a quantum phase transition from a Kondo-screened phase to a phase in which the two impurity spins screen one another. Our holographic model is based on a (1 + 1)-dimensional CFT description of the two-impurity Kondo model, reliable for two impurities with negligible separation in space. We consider only impurity spins in a totally anti-symmetric representation of an SU(N ) spin symmetry. We employ a large-N limit, in which both Kondo and RKKY couplings are double-trace, and both Kondo and inter-impurity screening appear as condensation of single-trace operators at the impurities’ location. We perform the holographic renormalization of our model, which allows us to identify the Kondo and RKKY couplings as boundary conditions on fields in AdS. We numerically compute the phase diagram of our model in the plane of RKKY coupling versus T , finding evidence for a quantum phase transition from a trivial phase, with neither Kondo nor inter-impurity screening, to a non-trivial phase, with both Kondo and anti-ferromagnetic inter-impurity screening. More generally we show, just using SU(N ) representation theory, that ferromagnetic correlations must be absent at leading order in the large-N limit. Our holographic model may be useful for studying many open problems involving strongly-interacting quantum impurities, including for example the Kondo lattice, relevant for describing the heavy fermion compounds.
Entanglement in J 1 – J 2 , S = 1/2 quantum spin chains with an impurity is studied using analytic methods as well as large scale numerical density matrix renormalization group methods. The entanglement is investigated in terms of the von Neumann entropy, S = −Trρ A logρ A , for a subsystem A of size r of the chain. The impurity contribution to the uniform part of the entanglement entropy, S imp , is defined and analysed in detail in both the gapless, J 2 ≤ J 2 c , as well as the dimerized phase, J 2 > J 2 c , of the model. This quantum impurity model is in the universality class of the single channel Kondo model and it is shown that in a quite universal way the presence of the impurity in the gapless phase, J 2 ≤ J 2 c , gives rise to a large length scale, ξ K , associated with the screening of the impurity, the size of the Kondo screening cloud. The universality of Kondo physics then implies scaling of the form S imp ( r /ξ K , r / R ) for a system of size R . Numerical results are presented clearly demonstrating this scaling. At the critical point, J 2 c , an analytic approach based on a Fermi liquid picture, valid at distances and energy scales , is developed and analytic results at T = 0 are obtained showing S imp = πξ K [1+π(1− r / R )cot(π r / R )]/(12 R ) for finite R . For T >0, in the thermodynamic limit, we find S imp = [π 2 ξ K T /(6 v )]coth(2π rT / v ), with v the spin-wave velocity. In the dimerized phase an appealing picture of the entanglement is developed in terms of a thin soliton (TS) ansatz and the notions of impurity valence bonds (IVB) and single particle entanglement (SPE) are introduced. The TS-ansatz permits a variational calculation of the complete entanglement in the dimerized phase that appears to be exact in the thermodynamic limit at the Majumdar–Ghosh point, J 2 = J 1 /2, and surprisingly precise even close to the critical point J 2 c . In the appendices the TS-ansatz is further used to calculate and with high precision at the Majumdar–Ghosh point and the relation between the finite temperature entanglement entropy, S ( T ), and the thermal entropy, S th ( T ), is discussed. Finally, the alternating part of S imp is discussed, together with its relation to the boundary induced dimerization.
Competition between the Kondo effect and Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction in the two-impurity Kondo problem can be phenomenologically described by the Rasul-Schlottmann spin model. We revisit this model from the quantum entanglement perspective by calculating both the inter-impurity entanglement and the local Kondo entanglement, the latter being the entanglement between a local magnetic impurity and its spatially nearby conduction electron. A groundstate phase diagram is derived and a discontinuous breakdown of the local Kondo entanglement is found at the singular point, associated concomitantly with a jump in the inter-impurity entanglement. An entanglement monogamy holds in the whole phase diagram. Our results identify the important role of the frustrated cross-coupling and demonstrate the local characteristic of the quantum phase transition in the two-impurity Kondo problem. The implications of these results for Kondo lattices and quantum information processing are also briefly discussed.
In order to study the interplay between Kondo and Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction, we calculate the spin-spin correlation functions between two Kondo impurities coupled to different sites of a half-filled open Hubbard chain. Using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG), we reexamine the exponents for the power-law decay of the correlation function between the two impurity spins as a function of the antiferromagnetic coupling J, the Hubbard interaction U, and the distance R between the impurities. The exponents for finite systems obtained in this work deviate from previously published DMRG calculations. We furthermore show that the long-distance behavior of the exponents is the same for impurities coupled to the bulk or to both ends of the chain. We note that a universal exponent for the asymptotic behavior can not be extracted from these finite-size systems with open boundary conditions.
The competition between the Kondo screening and indirect magnetic exchange in systems with two magnetic impurities coupled to a conventional s-wave superconductor gives rise to a nontrivial ground-state phase diagram. Here, we utilize the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method and exploit the non-Abelian spin-SU(2) symmetry to study the phase diagram for two quantum spin-21 impurities locally exchange coupled to large one-dimensional chains. The nonlocal interimpurity exchange is treated as an emergent Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) coupling. We find qualitatively different phase diagrams for impurity spins coupled to sites with odd or even distances d on the chain and a partial Kondo-screened spin-doublet phase that extends over the whole range of local exchange couplings J in the limit of weak superconducting pairing strength $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$. Our numerical DMRG studies are complemented by exact diagonalization of small (quantum-box) systems and by perturbative-in-J computations of the d- and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$-dependent RKKY interaction. It is thereby demonstrated that the specific system geometry is essential for our understanding of magnetic impurity interactions in superconducting hosts, and thus for insights into the control of quantum-state properties in nanoparticle systems and topological superconductivity.