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arXiv:1207.2631 · Physical Review B

Full density-matrix numerical renormalization group calculation of impurity susceptibility and specific heat of the Anderson impurity model

L. Merker, Andreas Weichselbaum, Theo A. Costi

Published Aug 30, 2012• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recent developments in the numerical renormalization group (NRG) allow the construction of the full density matrix (FDM) of quantum impurity models [see A. Weichselbaum and J. von Delft, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 076402 (2007)] by using the completeness of the eliminated states introduced by F. B. Anders and A. Schiller [F. B. Anders and A. Schiller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 196801 (2005)]. While these developments prove particularly useful in the calculation of transient response and finite-temperature Green's functions of quantum impurity models, they may also be used to calculate thermodynamic properties. In this paper, we assess the FDM approach to thermodynamic properties by applying it to the Anderson impurity model. We compare the results for the susceptibility and specific heat to both the conventional approach within NRG and to exact Bethe ansatz results. We also point out a subtlety in the calculation of the susceptibility (in a uniform field) within the FDM approach. Finally, we show numerically that for the Anderson model, the susceptibilities in response to a local and a uniform magnetic field coincide in the wide-band limit, in accordance with the Clogston-Anderson compensation theorem.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.86.075153

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Recent developments in the numerical renormalization group (NRG) allow the construction of the full density matrix (FDM) of quantum impurity models [see A. Weichselbaum and J. von Delft, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 076402 (2007)] by using the completeness of the eliminated states introduced by F. B. Anders and A. Schiller [F. B. Anders and A. Schiller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 196801 (2005)]. While these developments prove particularly useful in the calculation of transient response and finite-temperature Green's functions of quantum impurity models, they may also be used to calculate thermodynamic properties. In this paper, we assess the FDM approach to thermodynamic properties by applying it to the Anderson impurity model. We compare the results for the susceptibility and specific heat to both the conventional approach within NRG and to exact Bethe ansatz results. We also point out a subtlety in the calculation of the susceptibility (in a uniform field) within the FDM approach. Finally, we show numerically that for the Anderson model, the susceptibilities in response to a local and a uniform magnetic field coincide in the wide-band limit, in accordance with the Clogston-Anderson compensation theorem.
Spin susceptibility of Anderson impurities is a key quantity in understanding the physics of Kondo screening. Traditional numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculation of the impurity contribution ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$ to susceptibility, defined originally by Wilson in a flat wide band, has been generalized before to structured conduction bands. The results brought about non-Fermi-liquid and diamagnetic Kondo behaviors in ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$, even when the bands are not gapped at the Fermi energy. Here, we use the full density-matrix (FDM) NRG to present high-quality data for the local susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{loc}}$ and to compare them with ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$ obtained by the traditional NRG. Our results indicate that those exotic behaviors observed in ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$ are unphysical. Instead, the low-energy excitations of the impurity in arbitrary bands only without gap at the Fermi energy are still a Fermi liquid and paramagnetic. We also demonstrate that unlike the traditional NRG yielding ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{loc}}$ less accurate than ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$, the FDM method allows a high-precision dynamical calculation of ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{loc}}$ at much reduced computational cost, with an accuracy at least one order higher than ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$. Moreover, artifacts in the FDM algorithm to ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{imp}}$ and origins of the spurious non-Fermi-liquid and diamagnetic features are clarified. Our work provides an efficient high-precision algorithm to calculate the spin susceptibility of impurity for arbitrary structured bands, while negating the applicability of Wilson's definition to such cases.
We introduce a method to obtain the specific heat of quantum impurity models via a direct calculation of the impurity internal energy requiring only the evaluation of local quantities within a single numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculation for the total system. For the Anderson impurity model we show that the impurity internal energy can be expressed as a sum of purely local static correlation functions and a term that involves also the impurity Green function. The temperature dependence of the latter can be neglected in many cases, thereby allowing the impurity specific heat Cimp{C}_{\mathrm{imp}}Cimp​ to be calculated accurately from local static correlation functions; specifically via ${C}_{\mathrm{imp}}=\frac{\ensuremath{\partial}{E}_{\mathrm{ionic}}}{\ensuremath{\partial}T}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{\ensuremath{\partial}{E}_{\mathrm{hyb}}}{\ensuremath{\partial}T}$, where Eionic{E}_{\mathrm{ionic}}Eionic​ and Ehyb{E}_{\mathrm{hyb}}Ehyb​ are the energies of the (embedded) impurity and the hybridization energy, respectively. The term involving the Green function can also be evaluated in cases where its temperature dependence is non-negligible, adding an extra term to Cimp{C}_{\mathrm{imp}}Cimp​. For the nondegenerate Anderson impurity model, we show by comparison with exact Bethe ansatz calculations that the results recover accurately both the Kondo induced peak in the specific heat at low temperatures as well as the high-temperature peak due to the resonant level. The approach applies to multiorbital and multichannel Anderson impurity models with arbitrary local Coulomb interactions. An application to the Ohmic two-state system and the anisotropic Kondo model is also given, with comparisons to Bethe ansatz calculations. The approach could also be of interest within other impurity solvers, for example, within quantum Monte Carlo techniques.
The full-density-matrix numerical renormalization group has evolved as a systematic and transparent setting for the calculation of thermodynamical quantities at arbitrary temperatures within the numerical renormalization group (NRG) framework. It directly evaluates the relevant Lehmann representations based on the complete basis sets introduced by Anders and Schiller [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 196801 (2005)]. In addition, specific attention is given to the possible feedback from low-energy physics to high energies by the explicit and careful construction of the full thermal density matrix, naturally generated over a distribution of energy shells. Specific examples are given in terms of spectral functions (fdmNRG), time-dependent NRG (tdmNRG), Fermi-golden-rule calculations (fgrNRG) as well as the calculation of plain thermodynamic expectation values. Furthermore, based on the very fact that, by its iterative nature, the NRG eigenstates are naturally described in terms of matrix product states, the language of tensor networks has proven enormously convenient in the description of the underlying algorithmic procedures. This paper therefore also provides a detailed introduction and discussion of the prototypical NRG calculations in terms of their corresponding tensor networks.
For a given quantum impurity model, Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG) naturally defines a NRG Hamiltonian whose exact eigenstates and eigenenergies are obtainable. We give exact expressions for the free energy, static, as well as dynamical quantities of the NRG Hamiltonian. The dynamical spectral function from this approach contains full excitations including intra- and intershell excitations. For the spin-boson model, we compare the spectral function obtained from the present method and the full density matrix (FDM) method, showing that while both guarantee rigorous sum rule, the full excitation approach avoids the causality problem of FDM method.
The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a numerical method for studying low dimensional strongly correlated models. The study of these models is one of the most active areas of condensed matter physics today and has been spurred not only by the discovery of high temperature superconductivity but also by experiments on new compounds. In this thesis we study fundamentals of the density matrix renormalization group method as well as applications of the method to Heisenberg spin chains. The introductory text is meant as a brief overview of the DMRG as well as Heisenberg spin systems and provides an introduction to the papers. In papers I and II we investigate the density matrix renormalization group with the aim to better understand the underlying structure of the method. We find that if the renormalization converges to a fixed point in the thermodynamic limit, the resulting basis states can be written as a matrix product form. We also show an explicit relation of the DMRG to variational calculations using the fact that the matrix product states can be rederived through a variational ansatz without any reference to the DMRG calculation. It is then shown how the matrix product states can be used to define a set of Bloch waves for describing elementary excitations of the Heisenberg spin-1 chain. The low lying energy spectrum is calculated. In papers III and IV we investigate the thermodynamics of impurities in a spin-1/2 chain. For this purpose we have shown that a recently developed transfer matrix DMRG method can be used to calculate impurity properties. Both impurity corrections to thermodynamic properties and local properties at finite temperature can be obtained. The method gives quicker and more accurate results than quantum Monte Carlo. The numerical results show good agreement with field theory calculations for a number of impurity configurations and the cross-over function for the magnetic susceptibility from high- to low-temperature behavior shows the expected data collapse. Our results also give quantitative predictions for experiments on doped spin-1/2 chains.
The numerical renormalization group (NRG) approach was developed to identify and quantify different equilibrium regimes of quantum impurity systems (QISs) with unprecedented accuracy by a tailored finite size representation. Out of equilibrium, the steady-state density operator is not of the Boltzmannian form but one that is determined by the imposed boundary conditions. We extend the NRG to the nonequilibrium setting by augmenting each Wilson site with a reservoir, whose coupling functions are calculated via a continuous fraction expansion in order to recover the continuum limit exactly. The nonequilibrium parameters such as a finite bias as well as a finite temperature gradient enters through the Bloch-Redfield tensor (BRT), whose zero eigenvector gives the steady-state density operator. We used the resulting open chain full density matrix (OC-FDM) approach with an effective single lead description to investigate the charge and spin transport through a quantum dot (QD) under finite bias and temperature gradient. The influence of lead asymmetry and an external magnetic field on the transport properties are also studied. For completeness, we have also investigated local properties of the QD, such as charge fluctuations and find excellent agreement with real-time quantum Monte Carlo (RT-QMC) data. The OC-FDM approach was able to explore Kondo energy scales as low as TK/D≈10−8T_K/D \approx 10^{-8}TK​/D≈10−8 in the non-equilibrium regime, as well as show convergence with the established equilibrium benchmarks, such as a quantitative agreement with full density matrix numerical renormalization group (FDM-NRG) and Fermi-liquid scaling at small bias and temperature. Owing to the effective single lead description, a single OC-FDM data point takes orders of magnitude less time on a standard laptop, compared to other state-of-the-art numerical methods.