The appearance of unconventional superconductivity near heavy-fermion quantum critical points (QCPs) motivates investigation of pairing correlations close to a ``beyond Landau'' Kondo-destruction QCP. We focus on a two-Anderson-impurity cluster in which Kondo destruction is induced by a pseudogap in the conduction-electron density of states. Analysis via continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo and the numerical renormalization group reveals a previously unstudied QCP that both displays the critical-local moment fluctuations characteristic of Kondo destruction and leads to a strongly enhanced singlet-pairing susceptibility. Our results provide insights into the mechanism for superconductivity in quantum critical metals.
We address the phenomenon of critical Kondo destruction in pseudogap Bose-Fermi Anderson and Kondo quantum impurity models. These models describe a localized level coupled both to a fermionic bath having a density of states that vanishes like ${|\ensuremath{\epsilon}|}^{r}$ at the Fermi energy ($\ensuremath{\epsilon}=0$) and, via one component of the impurity spin, to a bosonic bath having a sub-Ohmic spectral density proportional to ${|\ensuremath{\omega}|}^{s}$. Each bath is capable by itself of suppressing the Kondo effect at a continuous quantum phase transition. We study the interplay between these two mechanisms for Kondo destruction using continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo for the pseudogap Bose-Fermi Anderson model with
0<r<21 and $\frac{1}{2}\ensuremath{\le}s<1$, and applying the numerical renormalization group to the corresponding Kondo model. At particle-hole symmetry, the models exhibit a quantum-critical point between a Kondo (fermionic strong-coupling) phase and a localized (Kondo-destroyed) phase. The two solution methods, which are in good agreement in their domain of overlap, provide access to the many-body spectrum, as well as to correlation functions including, in particular, the single-particle Green's function and the static and dynamical local spin susceptibilities. The quantum-critical regime exhibits the hyperscaling of critical exponents and $\ensuremath{\omega}/T$ scaling in the dynamics that characterize an interacting critical point. The
(r,s) plane can be divided into three regions: one each in which the calculated critical properties are dominated by the bosonic bath alone or by the fermionic bath alone, and between these two regions, a third in which the bosonic bath governs the critical spin response but both baths influence the renormalization-group flow near the quantum-critical point.
In quantum critical heavy fermion systems, local moments are coupled to both collective spin fluctuations and conduction electrons. As such, the Bose-Fermi Kondo model, describing the coupling of a local moment to both a bosonic and a fermionic bath, has been of extensive interest. For the model in the presence of SU(2) spin rotational symmetry, questions have been raised about its phase diagram. Here we develop a version of continuous-time Quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) method suitable for addressing this issue; this procedure can reach sufficiently low temperatures while preserving the SU(2) symmetry. Using this method for the Bose-Fermi Anderson model, we clarify the renormalization-group fixed points and the phase diagram for the case with a constant fermionic-bath density of states and a power-law bosonic-bath spectral function
ρb(ω)∝ωs (
0<s<1). We find two types of Kondo destruction QCP, depending on the power-law exponent
s in the bosonic bath spectrum. For
s∗<s<1, both types of QCPs exist and, in the parameter regime accessible by an analytical
ϵ-expansion renormalization-group calculation (here
ϵ=1−s), the CT-QMC result is fully consistent with prior predictions by the latter method. For
s<s∗, there is only one type of QCP. At both type of Kondo destruction QCPs, we find that the exponent of the local spin susceptibility
η obeys the relation
η=ϵ, which has important implications for Kondo destruction QCP in the Kondo lattice problem.
Quantum criticality in certain heavy-fermion metals is believed to go beyond the Landau framework of order-parameter fluctuations. In particular, there is considerable evidence for Kondo destruction: a disappearance of the static Kondo singlet amplitude that results in a sudden reconstruction of Fermi surface across the quantum critical point and an extra critical energy scale. This effect can be analyzed in terms of a dynamical interplay between the Kondo and RKKY interactions. In the Kondo-destroyed phase, a well-defined Kondo resonance is lost, but Kondo singlet correlations remain at nonzero frequencies. This dynamical effect allows for mass enhancement in the Kondo-destroyed phase. Here, we elucidate the dynamical Kondo effect in Bose-Fermi Kondo/Anderson models, which unambiguously exhibit Kondo-destruction quantum critical points. We show that a simple physical quantity---the expectation value
⟨Sf⋅sc⟩ for the dot product of the local (
f) and conduction-electron (
c) spins---varies continuously across such quantum critical points. A nonzero
⟨Sf⋅sc⟩ manifests the dynamical Kondo effect that operates in the Kondo-destroyed phase. Implications are discussed for the stability of Kondo-destruction quantum criticality as well as the understanding of experimental results in quantum critical heavy-fermion metals.
Recent studies of the global phase diagram of quantum-critical heavy-fermion metals prompt consideration of the interplay between the Kondo interactions and quantum fluctuations of the local moments alone. Toward this goal, we study a Bose-Fermi Kondo model (BFKM) with Ising anisotropy in the presence of a local transverse field that generates quantum fluctuations in the local-moment sector. We apply the numerical renormalization-group method to the case of a sub-Ohmic bosonic bath exponent and a constant conduction-electron density of states. Starting in the Kondo phase at zero transverse field, there is a smooth crossover with increasing transverse field from a fully screened to a fully polarized impurity spin. By contrast, if the system starts in its localized phase, then increasing the transverse field causes a continuous, Kondo-destruction transition into the partially polarized Kondo phase. The critical exponents at this quantum phase transition exhibit hyperscaling and take essentially the same values as those of the BFKM in zero transverse field. The many-body spectrum at criticality varies continuously with the bare transverse field, indicating a line of critical points. We discuss implications of these results for the global phase diagram of the Kondo lattice model.
In the two-impurity Anderson model, the interimpurity spin-exchange interaction favors a spin-singlet state between two impurities, leading to the breakdown of the Kondo effect. We show that a local uniform magnetic field can delocalize the quasiparticles to restore the Kondo resonance. This transition is found to be continuous, accompanied by not only the divergence of the staggered (antiferromagnetic) susceptibility, but also the divergence of the uniform spin susceptibility. This may imply that the magnetic-field-induced quantum phase transitions in Kondo systems are in favor of the local critical type.