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arXiv:cond-mat/0506061 · Physical Review B

Critical points and non-Fermi liquids in the underscreened pseudogap Kondo model

Serge Florens, Matthias Vojta C

Published Sep 22, 2005• 7 citations
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Abstract

Numerical renormalization group simulations have shown that the underscreened spin-1 Kondo impurity model with power-law bath density of states (DOS) $\ensuremath{\rho}(\ensuremath{\omega})\ensuremath{\propto}{\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\mid}}^{r}$ possesses various intermediate-coupling fixed points, including a stable non-Fermi-liquid phase. In this paper we discuss the corresponding universal low-energy theories, obtain thermodynamic quantities and critical exponents by renormalization group analysis together with suitable $ϵ$ expansions, and compare our results with numerical data. Whereas the particle-hole symmetric critical point can be controlled at weak coupling using a simple generalization of the spin-$1∕2$ model, we show that the stable non-Fermi-liquid fixed point must be accessed near strong coupling via a mapping onto an effective ferromagnetic ${S}_{\mathrm{eff}}=1∕2$ model with singular bath DOS with exponent ${r}_{\mathrm{eff}}=\ensuremath{-}r<0$. In addition, we consider the particle-hole asymmetric critical fixed point, for which we propose a universal field theory involving the crossing between doublet and triplet levels.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.72.115117

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Numerical renormalization group simulations have shown that the underscreened spin-1 Kondo impurity model with power-law bath density of states (DOS) \ensuremathρ(\ensuremathω)\ensuremath∝\ensuremath∣\ensuremathω\ensuremath∣r\ensuremath{\rho}(\ensuremath{\omega})\ensuremath{\propto}{\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\mid}}^{r}\ensuremathρ(\ensuremathω)\ensuremath∝\ensuremath∣\ensuremathω\ensuremath∣r possesses various intermediate-coupling fixed points, including a stable non-Fermi-liquid phase. In this paper we discuss the corresponding universal low-energy theories, obtain thermodynamic quantities and critical exponents by renormalization group analysis together with suitable ϵϵϵ expansions, and compare our results with numerical data. Whereas the particle-hole symmetric critical point can be controlled at weak coupling using a simple generalization of the spin-1∕21∕21∕2 model, we show that the stable non-Fermi-liquid fixed point must be accessed near strong coupling via a mapping onto an effective ferromagnetic Seff=1∕2{S}_{\mathrm{eff}}=1∕2Seff​=1∕2 model with singular bath DOS with exponent reff=\ensuremath−r<0{r}_{\mathrm{eff}}=\ensuremath{-}r<0reff​=\ensuremath−r<0. In addition, we consider the particle-hole asymmetric critical fixed point, for which we propose a universal field theory involving the crossing between doublet and triplet levels.
We discuss the two-channel Kondo problem with a pseudogap density of states $\ensuremath{\rho}(\ensuremath{\omega})\ensuremath{\propto}{|\ensuremath{\omega}|}^{r}$ of the bath fermions. Combining both analytical and numerical renormalization group techniques, we characterize the impurity phases and quantum phase transitions of the relevant Kondo and Anderson models. The line of stable points, corresponding to the overscreened non-Fermi-liquid behavior of the metallic r=0r=0r=0 case, is replaced by a stable particle-hole-symmetric intermediate-coupling fixed point for $0<r<{r}_{\mathrm{max}}\ensuremath{\approx}0.23$. For r>rmaxr>{r}_{\mathrm{max}}r>rmax​, this non-Fermi-liquid phase disappears, and instead a critical fixed point with an emergent spin-channel symmetry appears, controlling the quantum phase transition between two phases with stable spin and channel moments, respectively. We propose low-energy field theories to describe the quantum phase transitions, all being formulated in fermionic variables. We employ $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ expansion techniques to calculate critical properties near the critical dimensions r=0r=0r=0 and 1, the latter being potentially relevant for two-channel Kondo impurities in neutral graphene. We find the analytical results to be in excellent agreement with those obtained from applying Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique.
We revisit the physics of a Kondo impurity coupled to a fermionic host with a diverging power-law density of states near the Fermi level, $\ensuremath{\rho}(\ensuremath{\omega})\ensuremath{\sim}{|\ensuremath{\omega}|}^{r}$, with exponent $\ensuremath{-}1<r<0$. Using the analytical understanding of several fixed points, based partially on powerful mappings between models with bath exponents rrr and $(\ensuremath{-}r)$, combined with accurate numerical renormalization group calculations, we determine thermodynamic quantities within the stable phases and also near the various quantum phase transitions. Antiferromagnetic Kondo coupling leads to strong screening with a negative zero-temperature impurity entropy, while ferromagnetic Kondo coupling can induce a stable fractional spin moment. We formulate the quantum field theories for all critical fixed points of the problem, which are fermionic in nature and allow for a perturbative renormalization-group treatment.
We study a generalized multichannel single-impurity Kondo model, in which the impurity spin is described by a representation of the SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) group that combines bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom. The impurity spin states are described by Abrikosov pseudofermions, and we make use of a method initiated by Popov and Fedotov that allows a proper handling of the fermionic constraint. The partition function is derived within a path integral approach. We use renormalization group techniques to calculate the $\ensuremath{\beta}$ scaling function perturbatively in powers of the Kondo coupling constant, which is justified in the weak coupling limit. The truncated expansion is valid in the overscreened (Nozi\`eres-Blandin) regime, for an arbitrary SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) group and any value of the parameters characterizing the impurity spin representation. The intermediate coupling fixed point is identified. We derive the temperature dependence of various physical quantities at low TTT, controlled by a unique critical exponent, and show that the physics of the system in the overscreened regime governed by the intermediate coupling fixed point is characterized by a non-Fermi liquid behavior. Our results are in accordance with those obtained by other methods, as Bethe ansatz and boundary conformal field theory, in the case of various impurity spin symmetries. We establish in a unified way that the Kondo models in which the impurity spin is described successively by a fundamental, symmetric, antisymmetric, and mixed symmetry representation yield all the same low-energy physics in the overscreened regime. Possible generalizations of the analysis we present to the case of arbitrary impurity spin representations of SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) are also discussed.
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<120<r<\frac{1}{2}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)(r,s)(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.
Many correlated metallic materials are described by Landau Fermi-liquid theory at low energies, but for Hund metals the Fermi-liquid coherence scale T_{FL} is found to be surprisingly small. In this Letter, we study the simplest impurity model relevant for Hund metals, the three-channel spin-orbital Kondo model, using the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method and compute its global phase diagram. In this framework, T_{FL} becomes arbitrarily small close to two new quantum critical points that we identify by tuning the spin or spin-orbital Kondo couplings into the ferromagnetic regimes. We find quantum phase transitions to a singular Fermi-liquid or a novel non-Fermi-liquid phase. The new non-Fermi-liquid phase shows frustrated behavior involving alternating overscreenings in spin and orbital sectors, with universal power laws in the spin (ω^{-1/5}), orbital (ω^{1/5}) and spin-orbital (ω^{1}) dynamical susceptibilities. These power laws, and the NRG eigenlevel spectra, can be fully understood using conformal field theory arguments, which also clarify the nature of the non-Fermi-liquid phase.
We study how the non-Fermi-liquid nature of the overscreened multichannel Kondo impurity model affects the response to a BCS pairing term that, in the absence of the impurity, opens a gap $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$. We find that the low-energy spectrum in the limit $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ actually does not correspond to the spectrum strictly at $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$. In particular, in the two-channel Kondo model, the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ ground state is an orbitally degenerate spin singlet, while it is an orbital singlet with a residual spin degeneracy at $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$. In addition, there are fractionalized spin-1/2 subgap excitations whose energy in units of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ tends toward a finite and universal value when $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, as if the universality of the anomalous power-law exponents that characterize the overscreened Kondo effect turned into universal energy ratios when the scale invariance is broken by $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\ne}0$. This intriguing phenomenon can be explained by the renormalization flow toward the overscreened fixed point and the gap cutting off the orthogonality catastrophe singularities. We also find other non-Fermi-liquid features at finite $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$: the local density of states lacks coherence peaks, the states in the continuum above the gap are unconventional, and the boundary entropy is a nonmonotonic function of temperature. The persistent subgap excitations are characteristic of the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the model, and thus depend on the impurity spin and the number of screening channels.