Kondo effect with diverging hybridization: possible realization in graphene with vacancies

TL;DR

This paper explores the Kondo effect in graphene with vacancies, revealing how a diverging density of states influences Kondo physics, leading to distinctive signatures and a crossover between different regimes.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a spin-1/2 Kondo phase supported by diverging density of states in graphene vacancies and analyzes the effects of a cutoff on this divergence.

Findings

Enhanced Kondo temperature due to diverging density of states

Distinct thermodynamic signatures of powerlaw Kondo effect

Crossover from powerlaw to regular Kondo physics with cutoff

Abstract

We investigate Kondo physics in a host with a strongly diverging density of states. This study is motivated by a recent work on vacancies in the graphene honeycomb lattice, whose density of states is enhanced at low energies due to potential scattering. The generalized quantum impurity model describing the vacancy is shown to support a spin-1/2 (doublet) Kondo phase. The special role played by a diverging host density of states is examined in detail, with distinctive signatures associated with the powerlaw Kondo effect shown to appear in thermodynamic quantities and the scattering t matrix, with a strongly enhanced Kondo temperature. Although the effective Kondo model supports a novel stable phase characterized by strong renormalized particle-hole asymmetry, we find that this phase cannot in fact be accessed in the full Anderson model. In the more realistic case where the divergence in the host density of states is cut off at low energies, a crossover is generated between pristine powerlaw Kondo physics and a regular Kondo strong coupling state.