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arXiv:cond-mat/9504006 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Simple formulation of the two-channel Kondo model

Piers Coleman, L. B. Ioffe, Alexei M. Tsvelik

Published Sep 1, 1995• 123 citations
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Abstract

We reformulate the two-channel Kondo model to explicitly remove the unscattered charge degrees of freedom. This procedure permits us to move the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point to infinite coupling where we can apply a perturbative strong-coupling expansion. The fixed-point Hamiltonian involves a three-body Majorana zero mode whose scattering effects give rise to marginal self-energies. The compactified model is the N=3 member of a family of O(N) Kondo models that can be solved by semiclassical methods in the large N limit. For odd N, fermionic ``kink'' fluctuations about the N=\ensuremath{\infty} mean-field theory generate a fermionic N-body bound state which asymptotically decouples at low energies. For N=3, our semiclassical methods fully recover the non-Fermi-liquid physics of the original two-channel model. Using the same methods, we find that the corresponding O(3) Kondo lattice model develops a spin-gap and a gapless band of coherently propagating three-body bound states. Its strong-coupling limit offers a rather interesting realization of a marginal Fermi liquid.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.52.6611

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The O(3) symmetric Anderson model is an example of a system which has a stable low energy marginal Fermi liquid fixed point for a certain choice of parameters. It is also exactly equivalent, in the large U limit, to a localized model which describes the spin degrees of freedom of the linear dispersion two channel Kondo model. We first use an argument based on conformal field theory to establish this precise equivalence with the two channel model. We then use the numerical renormalization group (NRG) approach to calculate both one-electron and two-electron response functions for a range of values of the interaction strength U. We compare the behaviours about the marginal Fermi liquid and Fermi liquid fixed points and interpret the results in terms of a renormalized Majorana fermion picture of the elementary excitations. In the marginal Fermi liquid case the spectral densities of all the Majorana fermion modes display a |omega| dependence on the lowest energy scale, and in addition the zero Majorana mode has a delta function contribution. The weight of this delta function is studied as a function of the interaction U and is found to decrease exponentially with U for large U. Using the equivalence with the two channel Kondo model in the large U limit, we deduce the dynamical spin susceptibility of the two channel Kondo model over the full frequency range. We use renormalized perturbation theory to interpret the results and to calculate the coefficient of the ln omega divergence found in the low frequency behaviour of the T=0 dynamic susceptibility.

•Jan 1, 1999•11 citations
We reformulate the two-channel Kondo model to explicitly remove the unscattered charge degrees of freedom. This procedure permits us to move the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point to infinite coupling where we can apply a perturbative strong-coupling expansion. The fixed-point Hamiltonian involves a three-body Majorana zero mode whose scattering effects give rise to marginal self-energies. The compactified model is the N=3 member of a family of O(N) Kondo models that can be solved by semiclassical methods in the large N limit. For odd N, fermionic ``kink'' fluctuations about the N=\ensuremath{\infty} mean-field theory generate a fermionic N-body bound state which asymptotically decouples at low energies. For N=3, our semiclassical methods fully recover the non-Fermi-liquid physics of the original two-channel model. Using the same methods, we find that the corresponding O(3) Kondo lattice model develops a spin-gap and a gapless band of coherently propagating three-body bound states. Its strong-coupling limit offers a rather interesting realization of a marginal Fermi liquid.
We adapt the strong-coupling method first used in the one-channel Kondo model to develop a simple description of the spin- 12\frac{1}{2}21​ two-channel Kondo model with channel anisotropy. Our method exploits spin-charge decoupling to develop a compactified Hamiltonian that describes the spin excitations. The structure of the fixed-point Hamiltonian and quasiparticle impurity S matrix are incompatible with a Fermi-liquid description.
We solve the two-impurity, two-channel Kondo model using a combination of conformal invariance and bosonization techniques. In the odd-even symmetric case, the RKKY interaction is exactly marginal, resulting in a line of non-Fermi-liquid fixed points. Explicit formulas are given for the critical exponents and for the finite-size spectrum, which depend continuously on a single parameter. The marginal line spans a range of values of the RKKY coupling III which goes from the infinitely strong ferromagnetic point $I\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}+\ensuremath{\infty}$ to a finite antiferromagnetic critical value Imin<0{I}_{\mathrm{min}}<0Imin​<0 beyond which a Fermi liquid is recovered. When the odd-even symmetry is broken, the marginal line is unstable for ferromagnetic III, while for antiferromagnetic III it extends into a manifold of fixed points.
Despite the fact that the low energy behavior of the basic Kondo model cannot be studied perturbatively it was eventually shown by Wilson, Anderson, Nozieres and others to have a simple "local Fermi liquid theory" description. That is, electronic degrees of freedom become effectively non-interacting in the zero energy limit. However, generalized versions of the Kondo model involving more than one channel or impurity may exhibit low energy behavior of a less trivial sort which can, nonetheless, be solved exactly using either Bethe ansatz or conformal field theory and bosonization techniques. Now the low energy limit exhibits interacting many body behavior. For example, processes in which a single electron scatters off the impurity into a multi electron-hole state have a non-vanishing (and sometimes large) amplitude at zero energy. This corresponds to a rare solveable example of non-Fermi liquid behavior. Essential features of these phenomena are reviewed.
We study the single-channel (compactified) models, the \ensuremath{\sigma}-\ensuremath{\tau} model, and the O(3) symmetric Anderson model, which were introduced by Coleman et al., and Coleman and Schofield, as a simplified way to understand the low-energy behavior of the isotropic and anisotropic two-channel Kondo systems. These models display both Fermi-liquid and marginal-Fermi-liquid behavior and an understanding of the nature of their low-energy fixed points may give some general insights into the low-energy behavior of other strongly correlated systems. We calculate the excitation spectrum at the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the \ensuremath{\sigma}-\ensuremath{\tau} model using conformal field theory, and show that the results are in agreement with those obtained in recent numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculations. For the O(3) Anderson model we find further logarithmic corrections in the weak-coupling perturbation expansion to those obtained in earlier calculations, such that the renormalized interaction term now becomes marginally stable rather than marginally unstable. We derive a Ward identity and a renormalized form of the perturbation theory that encompasses both the weak- and strong-coupling regimes and show that the $\ensuremath{\chi}/\ensuremath{\gamma}$ ratio is 8/38/38/3 (\ensuremath{\chi} is the total susceptibility, spin plus isospin), independent of the interaction UUU and in agreement with the NRG calculations.
Majorana fermion representations of the algebra associated with spin, charge, and flavour currents have been used to transform the two-channel Kondo Hamiltonian. Using a path integral formulation, we derive a reduced effective action with long-range impurity spin-spin interactions at different imaginary times. In the semiclassical limit, it is equivalent to a one-dimensional Heisenberg spin chain with two-spin, three-spin, etc, long-range interactions, as a generalization of the inverse-square long-range Haldane-Shastry model. In this representation the elementary excitations are `semions', and the non-Fermi liquid low energy properties of the two-channel Kondo model are recovered.
The O(3) symmetric Anderson model is an example of a system which has a stable low energy marginal Fermi liquid fixed point for a certain choice of parameters. It is also exactly equivalent, in the large U limit, to a localized model which describes the spin degrees of freedom of the linear dispersion two channel Kondo model. We first use an argument based on conformal field theory to establish this precise equivalence with the two channel model. We then use the numerical renormalization group (NRG) approach to calculate both one-electron and two-electron response functions for a range of values of the interaction strength U. We compare the behaviours about the marginal Fermi liquid and Fermi liquid fixed points and interpret the results in terms of a renormalized Majorana fermion picture of the elementary excitations. In the marginal Fermi liquid case the spectral densities of all the Majorana fermion modes display a |omega| dependence on the lowest energy scale, and in addition the zero Majorana mode has a delta function contribution. The weight of this delta function is studied as a function of the interaction U and is found to decrease exponentially with U for large U. Using the equivalence with the two channel Kondo model in the large U limit, we deduce the dynamical spin susceptibility of the two channel Kondo model over the full frequency range. We use renormalized perturbation theory to interpret the results and to calculate the coefficient of the ln omega divergence found in the low frequency behaviour of the T=0 dynamic susceptibility.