The Kondo lattice model is a paradigmatic model for the description of local moment systems, a class of materials exhibiting a range of strongly correlated phenomena including heavy fermion formation, magnetism, quantum criticality and unconventional superconductivity. Conventional theoretical approaches invoke fractionalization of the local moment spin through large-N and slave particle methods. In this work we develop a new formalism, based instead on non-canonical degrees of freedom. We demonstrate that the graded Lie algebra su(2|2) provides a powerful means of organizing correlations on the Kondo lattice through a splitting of the electronic degree of freedom, in a manner which entwines the conduction electrons with the local moment spins. This offers a novel perspective on heavy fermion formation. Unlike slave-particle methods, non-canonical degrees of freedom generically allow for a violation of the Luttinger sum rule, and we interpret recent angle resolved photoemission experiments on Ce-115 systems in view of this.
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