Recently, dynamical mean field theory calculations have shown that kinks emerge in the real part of the self energy of strongly correlated metals close to the Fermi level. This gives rise to a similar behavior in the quasi-particle dispersion relation as well as in the electronic specific heat. Since f-electron systems are even more strongly correlated than the -hitherto studied- d-electron systems we apply the dynamical mean field approach with the numerical renormalization group method as impurity solver to study whether there are kinks in the periodic Anderson model.
The Kondo and Periodic Anderson Model (PAM) are known to provide a microscopic picture of many of the fundamental properties of heavy fermion materials and, more generally, a variety of strong correlation phenomena in $4f$ and $5f$ systems. In this paper, we apply the Determinant Quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) method to include disorder in the PAM, specifically the removal of a fraction $x$ of the localized orbitals. We determine the evolution of the coherence temperature $T^*$, where the local moments and conduction electrons become entwined in a heavy fermion fluid, with $x$ and with the hybridization $V$ between localized and conduction orbitals. We recover several of the principal observed trends in $T^*$ of doped heavy fermions, and also show that, within this theoretical framework, the calculated Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxation rate tracks the experimentally measured behavior in pure and doped CeCoIn$_5$. Our results contribute to important issues in the interpretation of local probes of disordered, strongly correlated systems.
Motivated by recent photoemission and pump-probe experiments, we report determinant Quantum Monte Carlo simulations of hybridization fluctuations in the half-filled periodic Anderson model. A tentative phase diagram is constructed based solely on hybridization fluctuation spectra and reveals a crossover regime between an unhybridized selective Mott state and a fully hybridized Kondo insulating state. This intermediate phase exhibits nonlocal hybridization fluctuations and consequentially the so-called band bending and a direct hybridization gap as observed in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and optical conductivity. This connects the band bending with the nonlocal hybridization fluctuations as proposed in latest ultrafast optical pump-probe experiment. The Kondo insulating state is only established at lower temperatures with the development of sufficiently strong inter-site hybridization correlations. Our work suggests a unified picture for interpreting recent photoemission, pump-probe, and optical observations and provides numerical evidences for the importance of hybridization fluctuations in heavy fermion physics.
We report a Determinant Quantum Monte Carlo investigation which quantifies the behavior of the susceptibility and the entropy in the framework of the periodic Anderson model (PAM), focussing on the evolution with different degree of conduction electron (c) -local moment (f) hybridization. These results capture the behavior observed in several experiments, including the universal behavior of the NMR Knight shift anomaly below the crossover temperature, $T^{ast}$. We find that $T^{ast}$ is a measure of the onset of c-f correlations and grows with increasing hybridization. These results suggest that the NMR Knight shift and spin-lattice relaxation rate measurements in non-Fermi liquid materials are strongly influenced by temperature-dependent hybridization processes. Our results provide a microscopic basis for the phenomenological two-fluid model of Kondo lattice behavior, and its evolution with pressure and temperature.
A central feature of the Periodic Anderson Model is the competition between antiferromagnetism, mediated by the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction at small conduction electron-local electron hybridization $V$, and singlet formation at large $V$. At zero temperature, and in dimension $d>1$, these two phases are separated by a quantum critical point $V_c$. We use Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the effect of impurities which have a local hybridization $V_{*} < V_c$ in the AF regime which are embedded in a bulk singlet phase with $V > V_c$. We measure the suppression of singlet correlations and the antiferromagnetic correlations which form around the impurity, as well as the size of the resulting domain. Our calculations agree qualitatively with NMR measurements in CeCoIn$_{5-x}$Cd$_x$.
The low-temperature transport coefficients of the degenerate periodic SU(N) Anderson model are calculated in the limit of infinite correlation between {it f} electrons, within the framework of dynamical mean-field theory. We establish the Fermi liquid (FL) laws in the clean limit, taking into account the quasiparticle damping. The latter yields a reduced value of the Lorenz number in the Wiedemann-Franz law. Our results indicate that the renormalization of the thermal conductivity and of the Seebeck coefficient can lead to a substantial enhancement of the electronic thermoelectric figure-of-merit at low temperature. Using the FL laws we discuss the low-temperature anomalies that show up in the electrical resistance of the intermetallic compounds with Cerium and Ytterbium ions, when studied as a function of pressure. Our calculations explain the sharp maximum of the coefficient of the $T^2$-term of the electrical resistance and the rapid variation of residual resistance found in a number of Ce and Yb intermetallics at some critical pressure.