We discuss in more details the theory of low energy excitations in quantum impurity problems with an external field at vanishing temperature, giving further support to results of the previous paper. We then extend these results to the next order at low frequency, obtaining in particular the exact expression, as a function of the bias, of the first two derivatives of the response function χ ′ ′ (ω) at ω = 0 in the double well problem of dissipative quantum mechanics. We also extend our approach to the case of non vanishing temperature and no external field. Fendley et al. had obtained in that case an expression for the Hall conductance with a single impurity using a Landauer-Büttiker type approach. We recover their result in the framework of linear response theory using renormalized form-factors. We also obtain, as a function of the temperature, the first derivative of the response function χ ′ ′ (ω) at ω = 0 in the double well problem of dissipative quantum mechanics. 12/96
We study different aspects of integrable boundary quantum field theories, focusing mostly on the ``boundary sine-Gordon model'' and its applications to condensed matter physics. The first part of the review deals with formal problems. We analyze the classical limit and perform semi-classical quantization. We show that the non-relativistic limit corresponds to the Calogero-Moser model with a boundary potential. We construct a lattice regularization of the problem via the XXZ chain. We classify boundary bound states. We generalize the Destri de Vega method to compute the ground state energy of the theory on a finite interval. The second part deals with some applications to condensed matter physics. We show how to compute analytically time and space dependent correlations in one-dimensional quantum integrable systems with an impurity. Our approach is based on a description of these systems in terms of massless scattering of quasiparticles. Correlators follow then from matrix elements of local operators between multiparticle states -- the massless form-factors. Although, in general an infinite sum of these form-factors has to be considered, we find that for the current, spin and energy operators only a few (two or three) are necessary to obtain an accuracy of more than 1\%. Our results hold for arbitrary impurity strength, in contrary to the perturbative expansions in the coupling constants. As an example, we compute the frequency dependent condunctance, at zero temperature, in a Luttinger liquid with an impurity, and also discuss the susceptibility in the Kondo model and the time-dependent properties of the two-state problem with dissipation.
We explicitly evaluate the infinite series of integrals that appear in the "Anderson-Yuval" reformulation of the anisotropic Kondo model in terms of a one-dimensional Coulomb gas. We do this by developing a general approach relating the anisotropic Kondo model of arbitrary spin with the boundary sine-Gordon model, which describes an impurity in a Luttinger liquid and tunneling in the fractional quantum Hall effect. The Kondo solution then follows from the exact perturbative solution of the latter model in terms of Jack polynomials.
We show that the problem of impurity tunneling in a Luttinger liquid of electrons with spin is solvable in the spin isotropic case ${(g}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}=2$, ${g}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}$ arbitrary). The resulting integrable model is similar to a two-channel anisotropic Kondo model, but with the impurity spin in a ``cyclic representation'' of the quantum algebra
su(2)q associated with the anisotropy. Using exact, nonperturbative techniques we study the renormalization-group flow, and compute the dc conductance. As expected from the analysis of Kane and Fisher we find that the IR fixed point corresponds to two separate leads. We also prove an exact duality between the UV and IR expansions of the current at vanishing temperature.
We present an extensive study of the two-impurity Kondo problem for spin-1 adatoms on a square lattice using an exact canonical transformation to map the problem onto an effective one-dimensional system that can be numerically solved using the density matrix renormalization group method. We provide a simple intuitive picture and identify the different regimes, depending on the distance between the two impurities, Kondo coupling
JK, longitudinal anisotropy
D, and transverse anisotropy
E. In the isotropic case, two impurities on opposite (the same) sublattices have a singlet (triplet) ground state. However, the energy difference between the triplet ground state and the singlet excited state is very small and we expect an effectively fourfold-degenerate ground state, i.e., two decoupled impurities. For large enough
JK the impurities are practically uncorrelated forming two independent underscreened states with the conduction electrons, a clear nonperturbative effect. When the impurities are entangled in an RKKY-like state, Kondo correlations persist and the two effects coexist: the impurities are underscreened, and the dangling spin-
1/2 degrees of freedom are responsible for the interimpurity entanglement. We analyze the effects of magnetic anisotropy in the development of quasiclassical correlations.
This thesis contributes to the understanding of impurity models. It is divided into two main parts, with a general introduction given in Part I and the research related to it presented in Part II, with the second part being subdivided into two main projects. In the first project, the influence of two many-body effects, the Kondo effect and the Fermi edge singularity, on the absorption and emission spectra of self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) is examined. Whereas the Kondo effect so far was always examined with transport experiments, we show that it has been observed with optical methods for the first time, by comparing experimental data for the absorption line shapes of QDs to calculations with the numerical renormalization group. We continue by examining a QD with strong optical coupling of the energy levels. The resulting interplay of Rabi-oscillations and Kondo effect leads to a new many-body state, a secondary, outer Kondo effect, with Kondo-like correlations between the spin-Kondo and the trion state. The last work regarding optics at QDs addresses the Fermi edge singularity. We show that for QDs this phenomenon can be described numerically on a quantitative level. The second project concerns transport properties of impurity models. First, we present a comprehensive study of the Kondo effect for an InAs-nanowire QD, a system for which the Kondo effect was observed only a few years ago. The second study regarding transport concerns the Kondo effect in bulk metals with magnetic impurities. Although nowadays the Kondo effect is often studied with QDs, it was discovered for iron impurities in noble metals like gold and silver. However, it was unknown for a long time which exact realization of Kondo model describes these systems. We identify the model by comparing numerical calculations for the magnetoresistivity and the dephasing rate for different models to experimental results. The third work about transport concerns the phenomenon that for a fixed type of Kondo model quantities like the magnetoresistivity or the conductivity, respectively, can be scaled onto a universal curve for different parameters, when energies are rescaled with the the Kondo temperature
TK, since it is the only relevant low energy scale of the problem. For finite bandwidth, however, different definitions of
TK (which coincide in the limit of infinite bandwidth) lead to different
TK-values. We show that with a very common definition of
TK, finite bandwidth, which is always present at numerical calculations, can deteriorate the universality of rescaled curves, and we offer an alternative definition of
TK which ensures proper scaling. In the last study presented in this thesis we calculate the Fermi-liquid coefficients for fully screened multi-channel Kondo models. For temperatures below
TK, these models show Fermi-liquid behavior, and the impurity density of states and certain quantities which depend on it, like resistivity, show quadratic dependencies on parameters like temperature or magnetic field, described by the Fermi-liquid coefficients. We calculate these coefficients both analytically and numerically.