No Arabic abstract
Heavy fermion systems, and other strongly correlated electron materials, often exhibit a competition between antiferromagnetic (AF) and singlet ground states. Using exact Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, we examine the effect of impurities in the vicinity of such AF- singlet quantum critical points, through an appropriately defined impurity susceptibility, $chi_{imp}$. Our key finding is a connection, within a single calculational framework, between AF domains induced on the singlet side of the transition, and the behavior of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation rate $1/T_1$. We show that local NMR measurements provide a diagnostic for the location of the QCP which agrees remarkably well with the vanishing of the AF order parameter and large values of $chi_{imp}$. We connect our results with experiments on Cd-doped CeCoIn$_5$.
Systematic theoretical results for the effects of a dilute concentration of magnetic impurities on the thermodynamic and transport properties in the region around the quantum critical point of a ferromagnetic transition are obtained. In the quasi-classical regime, the dynamical spin fluctuations enhance the Kondo temperature. This energy scale decreases rapidly in the quantum fluctuation regime, where the properties are those of a line of critical points of the multichannel Kondo problem with the number of channels increasing as the critical point is approached, except at unattainably low temperatures where a single channel wins out.
The elastic neutron scattering experiments were carried out on the solid solutions CeRh_{1-x}Co_xIn_5 to clarify the nature of the antiferromagnetic (AF) state in the vicinity of the quantum critical point (QCP): x_c ~0.8. The incommensurate AF order with the wave vector of q_h=(1/2,1/2,~0.3) observed in pure CeRhIn_5 is weakly suppressed upon doping with Co, and a commensurate q_c=(1/2,1/2,1/2) and an incommensurate q_1=(1/2,1/2,~0.42) AF structures evolve at intermediate Co concentrations. These AF orders are enhanced at x=0.7, and furthermore the q_h AF order vanishes. These results suggest that the AF correlations with the q_c and q_1 modulations are significantly enhanced in the intermediate x range, and may be connected with the evolution of the superconductivity observed above x~0.3.
We investigate the interplay between charge order and superconductivity near an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point using sign-problem-free Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We establish that, when the electronic dispersion is particle-hole symmetric, the system has an emergent SU(2) symmetry that implies a degeneracy between $d$-wave superconductivity and charge order with $d$-wave form factor. Deviations from particle-hole symmetry, however, rapidly lift this degeneracy, despite the fact that the SU(2) symmetry is preserved at low energies. As a result, we find a strong suppression of charge order caused by the competing, leading superconducting instability. Across the antiferromagnetic phase transition, we also observe a shift in the charge order wave-vector from diagonal to axial. We discuss the implications of our results to the universal phase diagram of antiferromagnetic quantum-critical metals and to the elucidation of the charge order experimentally observed in the cuprates.
The heavy fermion CeMIn5 family with M = Co, Rh, Ir provide a prototypical example of strange superconductors with unconventional d-wave pairing and strange metal normal state, emerged near an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point. The microscopic origin of strange superconductor and its link to antiferromagnetic quantum criticality and strange metal state are still open issues. We propose a microscopic mechanism for strange superconductor, based on the coexistence and competition between the Kondo correlation and the quasi-2d short-ranged antiferromagnetic resonating-valence-bond spin-liquid near the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point via a large-N Kondo-Heisenberg model and renormalization group analysis beyond the mean-field level. We find the coexistence (competition) between the two types of correlations well explains the overall features of superconducting and strange metal state. The interplay of these two effects provides a qualitative understanding on how superconductivity emerges from the SM state and the observed superconducting phase diagrams for CeMIn5 near the anti-ferromagnetic quantum critical point.
Two-dimensional Dirac fermions are subjected to two types of interactions, namely the long-range Coulomb interaction and the short-range on-site interaction. The former induces excitonic pairing if its strength $alpha$ is larger than some critical value $alpha_c$, whereas the latter drives an antiferromagnetic Mott transition when its strength $U$ exceeds a threshold $U_c$. Here, we study the impacts of the interplay of these two interactions on excitonic pairing with the Dyson-Schwinger equation approach. We find that the critical value $alpha_c$ is increased by weak short-range interaction. As $U$ increases to approach $U_c$, the quantum fluctuation of antiferromagnetic order parameter becomes important and interacts with the Dirac fermions via the Yukawa coupling. After treating the Coulomb interaction and Yukawa coupling interaction on an equal footing, we show that $alpha_c$ is substantially increased as $U rightarrow U_c$. Thus, the excitonic pairing is strongly suppressed near the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point. We obtain a global phase diagram on the $U$-$alpha$ plane, and illustrate that the excitonic insulating and antiferromagnetic phases are separated by an intermediate semimetal phase. These results provide a possible explanation of the discrepancy between recent theoretical progress on excitonic gap generation and existing experiments in suspended graphene.