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Low Temperature Physics

Non-Fermi-liquid behavior: Exact results for ensembles of magnetic impurities

Andrei A. Zvyagin

Published Dec 1, 2002• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this work we consider several exactly solvable models of magnetic impurities in critical quantum antiferromagnetic spin chains and multichannel Kondo impurities. Their ground-state properties are studied, and the finite set of nonlinear integral equations which exactly describe the thermodynamics of the models is constructed. We obtain several analytical low-energy expressions for the temperature, magnetic field, and frequency dependences of important characteristics of exactly solvable disordered quantum spin models and disordered multichannel Kondo impurities with essential many-body interactions. We show that the only low-energy parameter that gets renormalized is the velocity of the low-lying excitations (or the effective crossover scale connected with each impurity); the others appear to be universal. In our study several kinds of strong disorder important for experiments were used. Some of them produce low divergences in certain characteristics of our strongly disordered critical systems (compared with finite values for the homogeneous case or a single impurity). For weak disorder, or for narrow distributions of the local Kondo temperatures, our exact results reveal the presence of Kondo screening of disordered ensembles of magnetic impurities by low-lying excitations of the host. We point out that our results qualitatively coincide with the data of experiments on real disordered quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic systems and with the similar behavior of some heavy metallic alloys.

DOI
10.1063/1.1531395

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In this work we consider several exactly solvable models of magnetic impurities in critical quantum antiferromagnetic spin chains and multichannel Kondo impurities. Their ground-state properties are studied, and the finite set of nonlinear integral equations which exactly describe the thermodynamics of the models is constructed. We obtain several analytical low-energy expressions for the temperature, magnetic field, and frequency dependences of important characteristics of exactly solvable disordered quantum spin models and disordered multichannel Kondo impurities with essential many-body interactions. We show that the only low-energy parameter that gets renormalized is the velocity of the low-lying excitations (or the effective crossover scale connected with each impurity); the others appear to be universal. In our study several kinds of strong disorder important for experiments were used. Some of them produce low divergences in certain characteristics of our strongly disordered critical systems (compared with finite values for the homogeneous case or a single impurity). For weak disorder, or for narrow distributions of the local Kondo temperatures, our exact results reveal the presence of Kondo screening of disordered ensembles of magnetic impurities by low-lying excitations of the host. We point out that our results qualitatively coincide with the data of experiments on real disordered quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic systems and with the similar behavior of some heavy metallic alloys.
Exact results for the thermodynamic properties of ensembles of magnetic impurities with randomly distributed host-impurity couplings in the quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model are presented. Exact calculations are done for arbitrary values of temperature and external magnetic field. We have shown that for strong disorder the quenching of the impurity moments is absent. For weak disorder the screening persists, but with the critical non-Fermi-liquid behaviors of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat. A comparison with disordered Kondo effect experiments in dirty metallic alloys is performed.
We calculate exactly the thermodynamics of ensembles of magnetic impurities with randomly distributed host-impurity couplings in the critical region of the uniaxial spin-1/2 quantum chain. We derive a finite set of integral equations describing the complete temperature and magnetic field dependence of the system. Exact numerical results for arbitrary values of temperature and external magnetic field are obtained. We show that for strong disorder the quenching of the impurity moments is absent. For weak disorder the screening persists, but with a critical non-Fermi-liquid behaviour of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat. We point out that the `easy-plane' magnetic anisotropy does not qualitatively change the behaviour of the thermodynamic characteristics of the disordered impurities in the antiferromagnetic chain. On the other hand, anisotropy of ferromagnetic type can enhance the tendency to quenching of the impurities for strong disorder.
In the framework of the exactly solvable model, using nonperturbative methods, the temperature and magnetic field behavior of the NMR relaxation rate (and low-energy dynamical structure factor) for the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain with magnetic impurities is calculated. For a single magnetic impurity, totally screened at low temperatures by spinons of the chain, the critical exponents, which determine the low-temperature and magnetic field behavior, get renormalized. For the finite concentration of impurities with the random distribution of the impurity-chain coupling the weak disorder in the distribution does not produce essential changes to the dynamical structure factor. Contrary, the strong disorder yields drastically different behavior of the low-energy dynamical characteristics, comparing to the homogeneous chain. Our results are generic, and they qualitatively agree in limiting cases with the results of perturbative calculations for disordered spin chains and with the data of experiments on quasi-one-dimensional spin compounds.
We study the low-temperature thermodynamics of a spin-SSS magnetic impurity coupled to m> 2m>~2m> 2 degenerate bands of interacting electrons in one dimension. By exploiting boundary-conformal-field-theory techniques, we derive exact results for the possible impurity thermal and magnetic response. The leading behavior of the impurity magnetic susceptibility is shown to be insensitive to the electron-electron interaction. In contrast, there are two types of scaling behavior of the impurity specific heat consistent with the symmetries of the problem: Either it remains the same as for the ordinary multichannel Kondo problem for noninteracting electrons or it acquires a new leading term governed by a critical exponent ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{m}{=(g}_{m}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{-}1)/m,$ where gm< 1{g}_{m}<~1gm​< 1 is a generalized (mmm channel) Luttinger-liquid charge parameter measuring the strength of the repulsive electron-electron interaction. We conjecture that the latter behavior is indeed realized when the impurity is exactly screened (m=2S).(m=2S).(m=2S).
Exactly solvable Kondo problem in the open t−Jt-Jt−J chains
We study the problem of a boundary magnetic impurity coupled with the solvable t−Jt-Jt−J chains. Our model provides a good start point to understand the Kondo problem in a Luttinger liquid as well as in a strongly correlated host. The Kondo coupling constant JJJ can take arbitrary values, which allows us to study the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Kondo problems simultaneously. It is shown that both the Kondo coupling and the scalar potential effectively reconcile the spin dynamics at low temperatures. Generally, the impurity spin is split into two ghost spins via coupling effect. The residual entropy, which can be exactly derived for the present model, is strongly interaction-dependent. This hints the local spin configuration is very complicated and very different from that in the conventional Kondo problem. An unscreening phenomenon in the antiferromagnetic regime is found, which reveals the impurity potential plays an important role for the Kondo problem in a strongly correlated host. The low temperature specific heat is calculated in the framework of local Landau-Luttinger liquid theory.
We study the nonequilibrium transport properties of fully (exactly) screened Kondo quantum dots subject to a finite bias voltage or a finite temperature. First, we calculate the Fermi-liquid coefficients of the conductance for models with arbitrary spin, i.e., its leading behavior for small bias voltages or temperatures. Second, we determine the low-temperature behavior of the static susceptibility from the exactly known Bethe ansatz results for the magnetization. Third, we study the crossover from strong to weak coupling in the spin-1/2 and the spin-1 models coupled to one or two screening channels, respectively. Using a real-time renormalization group method we calculate the static and dynamical spin-spin correlation functions for the spin-1/2 model as well as the linear and differential conductance and the static susceptibility for the spin-1 model. We define various Kondo scales and discuss their relations. We assess the validity of the renormalization-group treatment by comparing with known results for the temperature dependence of the linear conductance and static susceptibility as well as the Fermi-liquid behavior at low energies.