Order parameter for the multichannel Kondo model at quantum criticality

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spin-correlation ratio as an order parameter to characterize impurity quantum phase transitions in multichannel Kondo models with broken channel symmetry, providing universal critical exponents.

Contribution

The study proposes a novel order parameter for impurity quantum phase transitions in multichannel Kondo models and determines its critical exponents through finite-size scaling analysis.

Findings

The spin-correlation ratio effectively characterizes quantum phase transitions.

Universal critical exponents are explicitly calculated for two- and three-channel models.

Finite-size scaling analysis confirms the robustness of the order parameter.

Abstract

A multichannel Kondo model, where two or more equivalent but independent channels of electrons compete to screen a spin-1/2 impurity, shows overcompensation of the impurity spin, leading to the non-Fermi-liquid behavior in various thermodynamic and transport properties. However, when the channel symmetry is broken, an impurity quantum phase transition can occur at zero temperature. Identification of an order parameter describing the impurity quantum phase transition is very difficult since it is beyond the conventional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson theory. By employing the natural orbitals renormalization group method, we study both two-channel and threechannel Kondo models, from the perspective of spin correlation between the impurity and electrons in electronic channels. Here we demonstrate that by introducing the spin-correlation ratio as an order parameter we can characterize impurity quantum phase transitions driven by channel asymmetry. In particular, the universal critical exponents $\beta$ of the spin-correlation ratio and $\nu$ of the correlation length are explicitly determined by finite-sizescaling analysis, namely, $\beta = 0.10(1), \nu = 2.0(1)$, and $\beta = 0.10(1), \nu = 2.5(1)$ for the two-channel and three-channel Kondo models, respectively.