Heavy-fermion valence-bond liquids in ultracold atoms: Cooperation of Kondo effect and geometric frustration

TL;DR

This paper explores how geometric frustration and Kondo effects coexist in heavy-fermion systems, proposing a model and cold atom setup to realize and study this exotic quantum state.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic mechanism for heavy Fermi liquids in frustrated Kondo lattices and proposes an experimental cold atom realization.

Findings

Orbital fluctuations induce a Kondo-screened phase under strong frustration.

The model predicts coexistence of heavy fermion behavior and geometric frustration.

A cold atom setup with $SU(3)$ symmetry can simulate this exotic state.

Abstract

We analyze a microscopic mechanism behind coexistence of a heavy Fermi liquid and geometric frustration in Kondo lattices. We consider a geometrically frustrated periodic Anderson model and demonstrate how orbital fluctuations lead to a Kondo-screened phase in the limit of extreme strong frustration when only local {\it singlet} states participate in the low-energy physics. We also propose a setup to realize and study this exotic state with $SU (3)$-symmetric alkaline-earth cold atoms.