Thermal transport in a spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain coupled to a (non) magnetic impurity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic and non-magnetic impurities affect thermal transport in a spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, revealing Kondo-like screening phenomena through numerical analysis of conductivity scaling and temperature dependence.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed numerical study of impurity effects on thermal conductivity in a strongly correlated spin chain, highlighting Kondo-like screening mechanisms.

Findings

Impurities significantly alter thermal conductivity behavior.

Kondo-like screening occurs as temperature decreases.

System size and impurity coupling influence transport properties.

Abstract

We explore the effect of a (non) magnetic impurity on the thermal transport of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain model. This unique system allows to probe Kondo-type phenomena in a prototype strongly correlated system. Using numerical diagonalization techniques we study the scaling of the frequency dependent thermal conductivity with system size and host-impurity coupling strength as well as the dependence on temperature. We focus in particular on the analysis of cutting-healing of weak links or a magnetic impurity by the host chain via Kondo-like screening as the temperature is lowered.