Kondo Effect in Spin Chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Kondo effect in spin chains, comparing it to the traditional electron-based Kondo model, and explores how different couplings influence the low-energy physics and Kondo temperature.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analytical and numerical comparison between the Kondo effect in free electron models and in spin chain models, highlighting the role of bulk marginal couplings.

Findings

At critical J_2c, the usual Kondo physics is recovered in the spin chain.

A new Kondo effect arises at J_2=0 due to bulk marginal coupling.

Kondo temperature varies slower with coupling in the J_2=0 case.

Abstract

The free electron Kondo problem can be described by a one-dimensional (1D) model because only the s-wave part of the electronic wave-function is affected by the Kondo coupling. Since only the spin degrees of freedom are involved in the Kondo interaction, and due to spin-charge separation in 1D, the universal low energy long distance physics of the Kondo model also arises when a magnetic impurity is coupled to the end of a gap-less antiferromagnetic J_1-J_2 spin-1/2 chain, where J_1(J_2) is the (next-)nearest neighbor coupling. Experimental realizations of such spin chain models are possible and using various analytical and numerical techniques, we present a detailed and quantitative comparison between the usual free electron Kondo model and such spin chain versions of the Kondo problem. For the gap-less J_1-J_2 spin chain two cases are studied, with zero next nearest neighbor coupling, J_2=0, and with a critical second neighbor coupling, J_2=J_2c. We first focus on the spin chain impurity model at J_2c~0.2412 where a bulk marginal coupling present in the spin chain model for J_2<J_2c vanishes. At J_2c, the usual Kondo physics is recovered in the spin chain model in the low energy regime. We then analyze the nearest-neighbor model (J_2=0) where a new kind of Kondo effect occurs due to the presence of the bulk marginal coupling. This marginal coupling leads to a slower variation of the Kondo temperature T_K with the bare Kondo coupling. In the exact Bethe ansatz solution of this spin chain impurity model (J_2=0) Frahm and Zvyagin noted this relation as well as the connection to the Kondo problem. Here, we provide further evidence for the connection to Kondo physics and present low temperature QMC results for the impurity susceptibility that further support this connection.