The single-channel Anderson impurity model is a standard model for the description of magnetic impurities in metallic systems. Usually, the bandwidth represents the largest energy scale of the problem. In this paper, we analyze the limit of a narrow band, which is relevant for the Mott-Hubbard transition in infinite dimensions. For the symmetric model we discuss two different effects. (i) The impurity contribution to the density of states at the Fermi surface always turns out to be negative in such systems. This leads to a new crossover in the thermodynamic quantities that we investigate using the numerical renormalization group. (ii) Using the Lanczos method, we calculate the impurity spectral function and demonstrate the breakdown of the skeleton expansion on an intermediate energy scale. Luttinger's theorem, as an example of the local Fermi liquid property of the model, is shown to still be valid.
The single-channel Anderson impurity model is a standard model for the description of magnetic impurities in metallic systems. Usually, the bandwidth represents the largest energy scale of the problem. In this paper, we analyze the limit of a narrow band, which is relevant for the Mott-Hubbard transition in infinite dimensions. For the symmetric model we discuss two different effects. (i) The impurity contribution to the density of states at the Fermi surface always turns out to be negative in such systems. This leads to a new crossover in the thermodynamic quantities that we investigate using the numerical renormalization group. (ii) Using the Lanczos method, we calculate the impurity spectral function and demonstrate the breakdown of the skeleton expansion on an intermediate energy scale. Luttinger's theorem, as an example of the local Fermi liquid property of the model, is shown to still be valid.
We consider single-particle spectra of a symmetric narrow-band Anderson impurity model, where the host bandwidth D is small compared to the hybridization strength ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{0}.$ Simple second-order perturbation theory (2PT) in U is found to produce a rich spectral structure that leads to rather good agreement with extant Lanczos results and offers a transparent picture of the underlying physics. It also leads naturally to two distinct regimes of spectral behavior, ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{0}Z/D\ensuremath{\gg}1$ and \ensuremath{\ll}1 (with Z the quasiparticle weight), whose existence and essential characteristics are discussed and shown to be independent of 2PT itself. The self-energy ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{i}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ is also examined beyond the confines of PT. It is argued that on frequency scales of order $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\sim}\sqrt{{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{0}D},$ the self-energy in strong coupling is given precisely by the 2PT result, and we point out that the resultant poles in ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{i}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ connect continuously to that characteristic of the atomic limit. This in turn offers a natural rationale for the known inability of the skeleton expansion to capture such behavior, and points to the intrinsic dangers of partial infinite-order summations that are based on PT in U.
The local moment approach (LMA) has presented itself as a powerful semianalytical quantum impurity solver (QIS) in the context of the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) for the periodic Anderson model and it correctly captures the low-energy Kondo scale for the single impurity model, having excellent agreement with the Bethe ansatz and numerical renormalization group (NRG) results. However, the most common correlated lattice model, the Hubbard model, has not been explored well within the LMA+DMFT framework beyond the insulating phase. Here in our work, within the framework we complete the filling-interaction phase diagram of the single band Hubbard model at zero temperature. Our formalism is generic to any particle filling and can be extended to finite temperature. We contrast our results with another QIS, namely the iterated perturbation theory (IPT) and show that the second spectral moment sum rule improves better as the Hubbard interaction strength grows stronger in LMA, whereas it severely breaks down after the Mott transition in IPT. For the metallic case, the Fermi liquid (FL) scaling agreement with the NRG spectral density supports the fact that the FL scale emerges from the inherent Kondo physics of the impurity model. We also show that, in the metallic phase, the FL scaling of the spectral density leads to universality which extends to infinite frequency range at infinite correlation strength (strong coupling). At large interaction strength, the off half-filling spectral density forms a pseudogap near the Fermi level and filling-controlled Mott transition occurs as one approaches the half-filling. As a response property, we finally study the zero temperature optical conductivity and find universal features such as absorption peak position governed by the FL scale and a doping independent crossing point, often dubbed the isosbestic point in experiments.
We study by Wilson numerical renormalization group the spectral properties of a two-orbital Anderson impurity model in the presence of an exchange splitting that follows either regular or inverted Hund's rules. The phase diagram contains a non-Fermi-liquid fixed point separating a screened phase, where conventional Kondo effect occurs, from an unscreened one, where the exchange splitting takes care of quenching the impurity degrees of freedom. On the Kondo screened side close to this fixed point the impurity density of states shows a narrow Kondo peak on top of a broader resonance. This narrow peak transforms in the unscreened phase into a narrow pseudogap inside the broad resonance. Right at the fixed point only the latter survives. The fixed point is therefore identified by a jump of the density of states at the chemical potential. We also consider the effect of several particle-hole symmetry-breaking terms. We show that particle-hole perturbations that simply shift the orbital energies do not wash out the fixed point, unlike those perturbations that hybridize the two orbitals. Consequently the density-of-state jump at the chemical potential remains finite even away from particle-hole symmetry. In other words, the pseudogap stays pinned at the chemical potential, although it is partially filled in. We also discuss the relevance of these results for lattice models that map onto this Anderson impurity model in the limit of large lattice coordination. Upon approaching the Mott metal-insulator transition, these lattice models necessarily enter a region with a local criticality that reflects the impurity non-Fermi-liquid fixed point. However, unlike the impurity, the lattice can get rid of the single-impurity fixed-point instability by spontaneously developing bulk coherent symmetry-broken phases, which we identify for different lattice models.
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.
An essential role for the description of correlated quantum many-particle systems is played by impurity problems. These consist of a small number of localized orbitals, where the electrons are subject to a Coulomb-interaction, coupled to noninteracting bath degrees of freedom. Impurity models are used for the description of magnetic impurities in metals, of quantum points in nanostructures, and in the context of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). For their solution a large number of numerical methods exists. We mention here quantum Monte Carlo methods, the numerical renormalization group, or the exact diagonalization method. In this thesis we introduce a new approach to impurity problems, which is based on the functional renormalization group (fRG). In contrast to the methods mentioned above this approach is approximative, but it can be applied with comparatively lower numerical effort. The aim of this thesis is to examine the advantages and limits of this method. An important role in this connection is played by the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM), which is already understood very well with other methods and is seen as a prototype for models with strong local correlations. The spin fluctuations of this model are governed by the so-called Kondo energy scale and a central question of this thesis is whether this scale can be reproduced with our approach. We begin with a short introduction to the Green's function formalism for correlated quantum many particle systems. Then the fRG flow equations for the one-particle irreducible vertex functions are deduced, and several approximation schemes are discussed. In chapter 4 we introduce the fRG scheme used in this thesis. At first the SIAM is mapped to a semi-infinite chain, in which the interacting orbital is given by the first site of this chain. The system is then subdivided into two parts. The first part, which is called 'core', consists of the interacting orbital and the first L bath sites. The remaining bath sites form the second part. At the beginning both parts are decoupled from each other such that the core can be solved exactly. Starting with this exact solution the coupling between the core and the remaining bath sites is switched on slowly in a renormalization group flow. This way it is possible to calculate the one-particle and two-particle correlation functions on the correlated site. We call this flow scheme 'hybridization flow'. The flow equations are formulated in an effective theory on the first bath site outside the core, which turns out to be advantageous compared to other implementations of the hybridization flow. In chapter 5 this hybridization flow method is applied to the SIAM with semi-elliptic bath density of states. We discuss the differences which arise for different core-sizes (L = 0,1,2,3) and for different truncations of the fRG flow equations. In the cases L=0 and L=2 the local Fermi liquid properties of the SIAM and the associated Kondo scale can not be reproduced in both approximation schemes. For the core sizes L=1 and L=3 the ground state of the core is already a spin singlet state in the beginning of the flow and the Fermi liquid properties are reproduced. The Kondo energy scale, which determines the width of the central quasi-particle peak and the size of the local spin-susceptibility, is however not accurately resolved. This is partly due to the finite temperature used in our implementation such that for larger interaction strength the temperature is above the Kondo energy scale. The application of the hybridization flow method to quantum impurity problems in the context of the DMFT is discussed in chapter 6. In this approach lattice models with a local interaction, like the Hubbard model, are mapped to an effective impurity problem for a single lattice site embedded in a dynamical mean field representing the influence of the other electrons. This scheme is exact in infinitely many dimensions and a nonperturbative approximation method for finite-dimensional systems. In particular the Mott metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model is successfully described by this method. One class of quantities, which is easily accessible from the hybridization flow scheme, is given by the local two-particle correlation functions. These play an essential role in non-local extensions of the DMFT. Therefore we mainly focus on these quantities. At first we apply our flow scheme to the Hubbard model on the Bethe lattice in infinite dimensions and calculate the local one-particle irreducible vertex functions in the insulating and the metallic phase in good agreement with previous calculations, which use the exact diagonalization method as impurity solver. After this we extend our flow scheme to a cluster DMFT method, which includes short-range antiferromagnetic correlations and calculate again the local and non-local vertex functions for the two-dimensional Hubbard model. We compare these to the results of the single-site DMFT.
The local Cu-O model is a local version of the extended Hubbard model and corresponds to a two-channel Anderson impurity model in which the two channels correspond to screening and hybridizing channels, respectively, and the screening interaction, Udc, is short range. The model represents a more realistic model for the local excitations in heavy fermions and may also be of relevance in understanding the normal state properties of high temperature superconductors. Below a critical screening strength, UdcUdccrit the particle-hole symmetric model exhibits Fermi-liquid behavior, whereas for Udc>Udccrit a non-Fermi-liquid state forms. Here, we report results of a numerical renormalization group calculation for the spectral density of single-particle excitations, in both the Fermi-liquid and non-Fermi-liquid regimes. The Kondo resonance is strongly modified for Udc close to Udccrit and is destroyed for Udc>Udccrit. The relevance of these results for high temperature superconductors and the photoemission spectra of heavy fermions is discussed.