For a mobile spin-1/2 impurity, coupled antiferromagnetically to a one-dimensional gas of fermions, perturbative ideas have been used to argue in favor of two-channel Kondo behavior of the impurity spin. Here we combine general considerations and extensive numerical simulations to show that the problem displays a novel quantum phase transition between two-channel and one-channel Kondo screening upon increasing the Kondo coupling. We construct a ground-state phase diagram and discuss the various non-trivial crossovers as well as possible experimental realizations.
We have studied the energy spectrum of a one-dimensional Kondo lattice, where the localized magnetic moments have SU(N) symmetry and two channels of conduction electrons are present. At half filling, the system is shown to exist in two phases: one dominated by RKKY-exchange interaction effects, and the other by Kondo screening. A quantum phase transition point separates these two regimes at temperature $T = 0$. The Kondo-dominated phase is shown to possess soft modes, with spectral gaps much smaller than the Kondo temperature.
Over-screened Kondo effect is feasible in carbon nanotube quantum dot junction hosting a spin $tfrac{1}{2}$ atom with single $s$-wave valence electron (e.g Au). The idea is to use the two valleys as two symmetry protected flavor quantum numbers $xi={bf K}, {bf K}$. Perturbative RG analysis exposes the finite weak-coupling two-channel fixed point, where the Kondo temperature is estimated to be around $0.5div5$~K. Remarkably, occurrence of two different scaling regimes implies a non-monotonic dependence of the conductance as function of temperature.
We study the possibility to observe the two channel Kondo physics in multiple quantum dot heterostructures in the presence of magnetic field. We show that a fine tuning of the coupling parameters of the system and an external magnetic field may stabilize the two channel Kondo critical point. We make predictions for behavior of the scaling of the differential conductance in the vicinity of the quantum critical point, as a function of magnetic field, temperature and source-drain potential.
The quantum Kibble-Zurek mechanism (QKZM) predicts universal dynamical behavior in the vicinity of quantum phase transitions (QPTs). It is now well understood for one-dimensional quantum matter. Higher-dimensional systems, however, remain a challenge, complicated by fundamental differences of the associated QPTs and their underlying conformal field theories. In this work, we take the first steps towards exploring the QKZM in two dimensions. We study the dynamical crossing of the QPT in the paradigmatic Ising model by a joint effort of modern state-of-the-art numerical methods. As a central result, we quantify universal QKZM behavior close to the QPT. However, upon traversing further into the ferromagnetic regime, we observe deviations from the QKZM prediction. We explain the observed behavior by proposing an {it extended QKZM} taking into account spectral information as well as phase ordering. Our work provides a starting point towards the exploration of dynamical universality in higher-dimensional quantum matter.
It has been shown that a quantum quench of interactions in a one-dimensional fermion system at zero temperature induces a universal power law $propto t^{-2}$ in its long-time dynamics. In this paper we demonstrate that this behaviour is robust even in the presence of thermal effects. The system is initially prepared in a thermal state, then at a given time the bath is disconnected and the interaction strength is suddenly quenched. The corresponding effects on the long times dynamics of the non-equilibrium fermionic spectral function are considered. We show that the non-universal power laws, present at zero temperature, acquire an exponential decay due to thermal effects and are washed out at long times, while the universal behaviour $propto t^{-2}$ is always present. To verify our findings, we argue that these features are also visible in transport properties at finite temperature. The long-time dynamics of the current injected from a biased probe exhibits the same universal power law relaxation, in sharp contrast with the non-quenched case which features a fast exponential decay of the current towards its steady value, and thus represents a fingerprint of quench-induced dynamics. Finally, we show that a proper tuning of the probe temperature, compared to that of the one-dimensional channel, can enhance the visibility of the universal power-law behaviour.