Spin liquid state in an inhomogeneous periodic Anderson model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ground state of a one-dimensional optical lattice system modeled by an inhomogeneous periodic Anderson model, revealing tunable Kondo spin liquid domains and coexistence of various phases.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the ground state of an inhomogeneous periodic Anderson model with optical lattices, highlighting the formation of Kondo spin liquid regions and their tunability.

Findings

Identification of local singlet formation at low densities

Observation of tunable Kondo spin liquid domains

Coexistence of multiple phases in the ground state

Abstract

We studied the ground state of alkaline-earth-metal atoms confined in one-dimensional optical lattices with an effective hybridization generated by a suitable laser field. This system is modeled by the periodic Anderson model plus a quadratic confining potential, and we adopted the density-matrix renormalization group to calculate its ground state. We found a one-to-one correspondence between the local variance, the local von Neumann entropy, and the on-site spin-spin correlation. For low global densities, we observed the formation of local singlets between delocalized and localized atoms and found Kondo spin liquid domains that can be tuned with the confining potential, the hybridization, and the local repulsion. Band insulator, metallic, phase separation, and Kondo spin liquid regions coexist in the ground state.