We map out the ground-state phase diagram of a one-dimensional
SU(N) Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model at half-filling and in the fully antisymmetric self-adjoint representation as a function of
N1 and Kondo coupling
Jk/t. On the basis of auxiliary field quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations with even
N up to 8, we show that the enlarged $\mathrm{SU}(N\ensuremath{\ge}4$) symmetry realizes a quantum phase transition separating a valence bond solid (VBS) phase occupying a weak-coupling part of the phase diagram and the Kondo insulator (KI) state dominating in the strong
Jk/t limit. Along the phase boundary, we always observe critical exponents that belong to a two-dimensional classical Ising universality class. We next trace the evolution of the composite fermion and spin spectral functions across the phase boundary and conclude that VBS order triggers a bond order wave state of conduction electrons, both coexisting with Kondo screening. Upon further reducing
Jk/t, we observe that composite quasiparticles lose their spectral weight indicating that VBS order gradually liberates localized
f spins from forming Kondo singlets with conduction electron spins. We contrast the QMC results with a static large-
N approximation, and we show that in the limit of infinite degeneracy $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ the order-disorder transition becomes of first order and is accompanied by a full decoupling of conduction electrons and localized
f spins. We complete our analysis by considering the limit of a vanishing Heisenberg coupling
Jh=0, and we provide evidence that the enlarged
SU(N) symmetry and low dimensionality of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida exchange interaction are not sufficient to induce VBS order in the conventional
SU(N) Kondo chain, which hosts solely a KI phase. Finally, we quantify the role of increasing
N in reducing the separation of charge and spin timescales specific to the KI state, and we show that the latter is adiabatically connected to a trivial band insulator captured by the large-
N approximation.
The quantum phase transition from a spin-Peierls phase with a small Fermi surface to a paramagnetic Luttinger-liquid phase with a large Fermi surface is studied in the framework of a one-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model that consists of an electron gas away from half filling, coupled to a spin-1/2 chain by Kondo interactions. The Kondo spins are further coupled to each other with isotropic nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg interactions which are tuned to the Majumdar-Ghosh point. Focusing on three-eighths filling and using the density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) method, we show that the zero-temperature transition between the phases with small and large Fermi momenta appears continuous, and involves a new intermediate phase where the Fermi surface is not well defined. The intermediate phase is spin gapped and has Kondo-spin correlations that show incommensurate modulations. Our results appear incompatible with the local picture for the quantum phase transition in heavy fermion compounds, which predicts an abrupt change in the size of the Fermi momentum.
Quantum phase transitions in the Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice are investigated in the variational cluster approximation. The critical interaction for the paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic phase transition is found to be in remarkable agreement with a recent large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation. Calculated staggered magnetization increases continuously with
U and thus we find the phase transition is of a second order. We also find that the semimetal-insulator transition occurs at infinitesimally small interaction and thus a paramagnetic insulating state appears in a wide interaction range. A crossover behavior of electrons from itinerant to localized character found in the calculated single-particle excitation spectra and short-range spin correlation functions indicates that an effective spin model for the paramagnetic insulating phase is far from a simple Heisenberg model with a nearest-neighbor exchange interaction.
We study quantum phase transitions in the Bose-Fermi Kondo problem, where a local spin is coupled to independent bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom. Applying a second-order expansion in the anomalous dimension of the Bose field, we analyze the various nontrivial fixed points of this model. We show that anisotropy in the couplings is relevant at the
SU(2)-invariant non-Fermi-liquid fixed points studied earlier, and thus the quantum phase transition is usually governed by
XY or Ising-type fixed points. We furthermore derive an exact result that relates the anomalous exponent of the Bose field to that of the susceptibility at any finite coupling fixed point. Implications for the dynamical mean-field approach to locally quantum critical phase transitions are also discussed.
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=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>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=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
r 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.