Lifshitz transitions in a heavy-Fermion liquid driven by short-range antiferromagnetic correlations in the two-dimensional Kondo lattice model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how short-range antiferromagnetic correlations induce Lifshitz transitions in the Fermi surface topology of a two-dimensional Kondo lattice model, revealing multiple quantum phase transitions and Fermi surface reconstructions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Lifshitz transitions driven by antiferromagnetic correlations in the 2D Kondo lattice, identifying specific quantum phase transitions and Fermi surface topology changes.

Findings

Lifshitz transitions change Fermi surface topology from hole-like to kidney-like pockets.

A first-order quantum phase transition occurs at a specific ratio of $J_{H}/J_{K}$.

A second-order transition leads to four Fermi pockets and Fermi surface shifts.

Abstract

The heavy-Fermion liquid with short-range antiferromagnetic correlations is carefully considered in the two-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model. As the ratio of the local Heisenberg superexchange $J_{H}$ to the Kondo coupling $J_{K}$ increases, Lifshitz transitions are anticipated, where the topology of the Fermi surface (FS) of the heavy quasiparticles changes from a hole-like circle to four kidney-like pockets centered around $(\pi ,\pi)$. In-between these two limiting cases, a first-order quantum phase transition is identified at $J_{H}/J_{K}=0.1055$ where a small circle begins to emerge within the large deformed circle. When $J_{H}/J_{K}=0.1425$, the two deformed circles intersect each other and then decompose into four kidney-like Fermi pockets via a second-order quantum phase transition. As $J_{H}/J_{K}$ increases further, the Fermi pockets are shifted along the direction ($\pi,\pi$) to ($\pi/2,\pi/2$), and the resulting FS is consistent with the FS obtained recently using the quantum Monte Carlo cluster approach to the Kondo lattice system in the presence of the antiferrmagnetic order.