We consider the Kondo effect in Y-junctions of anisotropic XY models in an applied magnetic field along the critical lines characterized by a gapless excitation spectrum. We find that, while the boundary interaction Hamiltonian describing the junction can be recasted in the form of a four-channel, spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Kondo Hamiltonian, the number of channels effectively participating in the Kondo effect depends on the chain parameters, as well as on the boundary couplings at the junction. The system evolves from an effective four-channel topological Kondo effect for a junction of XX-chains with symmetric boundary couplings into a two-channel one at a junction of three quantum critical Ising chains. The effective number of Kondo channels depends on the properties of the boundary and of the bulk. The XX-line is a “critical” line, where a four-channel topological Kondo effect can be recovered by fine-tuning the boundary parameter, while along the line in parameter space connecting the XX-line and the critical Ising point the junction is effectively equivalent to a two-channel topological Kondo Hamiltonian. Using a renormalization group approach, we determine the flow of the boundary couplings, which allows us to define and estimate the critical couplings and Kondo temperatures of the different Kondo (pair) channels. Finally, we study the local transverse magnetization in the center of the Y-junction, eventually arguing that it provides an effective tool to monitor the onset of the two-channel Kondo effect.
We show that a quantum spin circulator, a nonreciprocal device that routes spin currents without any charge transport, can be achieved in Y junctions of identical spin-
1/2 Heisenberg chains coupled by a chiral three-spin interaction. Using bosonization, boundary conformal field theory, and density matrix renormalization group simulations, we find that a chiral fixed point with maximally asymmetric spin conductance arises at a critical point separating a regime of disconnected chains from a spin-only version of the three-channel Kondo effect. We argue that networks of spin-chain Y junctions provide a controllable approach to construct long-sought chiral spin-liquid phases.
This thesis consists of two parts. In part one we discuss the Kondo model. First we point out the differences in physical properties between the one- and multi-channel Kondo model using a renormalization group analysis. We also point out the challenges in obtaining exact solutions. Then we give an overview of two approaches, bosonization and spin chain, for finding exact solution of the one-, two- and four-channel Kondo model. Using bosonization we review a mapping from the one- and two-channel model to the exactly solvable resonant level model for a specific coupling strength. Following previous work, we derive the Kondo effect for a spin chain construction with XX and Ising coupling, showing the low energy behavior to be equivalent to the two- or four-channel Kondo model. We also discuss why one, two and four channels are special and we point out the difficulties in extending these approaches to other multi-channel Kondo models.\nThen in part two we investigate survival of the topological edge effects of the Kitaev chain (Majorana edge modes) after a quantum quench. We determine a stability region for the edge modes after chemical potential and superconductivity quenches, by analyzing the wave functions using two measure: inverse participation ratio and overlap. We see that this region does not cover the full topological phase in parameter space. The Majoranas already disappear before the quenched system has reached the phase transition.
Josephson junctions are the central nonlinear element of superconducting qubits, yet their standard description is reached through a chain of approximations. We propose a purely quantum-mechanical model of the junction, formulated directly in Hilbert space: a charged particle moves on a one-dimensional loop, and the junction is a point at which the wave function obeys self-adjoint boundary conditions, labelled by a coupling strength
λ, which controls the transparency of the junction, and a phase jump
δ, which plays the role of the superconducting phase difference. For a loop with a single junction we solve the spectral problem and show that the ground-state momentum expectation, identified with the supercurrent, factorises exactly as
⟨p^0⟩=Ic(δ,λ)sinδ. For opaque junctions
Ic becomes independent of
δ and the first Josephson relation
I=Icsinδ is recovered; for strongly attractive coupling, where the ground state is bound to the junction, the
sinδ law is also recovered, but with an exponentially suppressed amplitude. For more transparent junctions, however, the model \emph{predicts} deviations from the pure
sinδ law:
Ic acquires a dependence on
δ already at order
λ−2, compatible with the higher Josephson harmonics recently found necessary to describe superconducting qubit spectra, and a fully transparent contact yields a current linear in
δ. When the phase varies in time, a gauge transformation shows that the voltage drop across the junction is proportional to
δ˙, so that the second Josephson relation emerges without being imposed. The boundary-condition approach thus reproduces both Josephson relations from first principles and predicts corrections to them, offering a route towards higher-fidelity models of superconducting qubits.
We derive the topological Kondo Hamiltonian describing a Y junction of three XX-spin chains connected to outer quantum Ising chains with different tilting angles for the Ising axis. We show that the tilting angles in the spin models play the role of the phases of the superconducting order parameters at the interfaces between bulk superconductors and one-dimensional conducting normal electronic wires. As a result, different tilting angles induce nonzero equilibrium spin (super)currents through the junction. Employing the renormalization group approach to the topological Kondo model, we derive the scaling formulas for the equilibrium spin currents. We argue that, by monitoring the crossover in the currents induced by the Kondo effect, it is possible to estimate the Kondo screening length. In particular, we prove how it is possible to tune the Kondo length by acting on the applied phases only; this enables us to map out the scaling properties by just tuning the tilting angles and the Kondo length accordingly.