Frustration shapes multi-channel Kondo physics: a star graph perspective

TL;DR

This paper investigates the multi-channel Kondo model using a star graph approach, revealing how ground state degeneracy influences non-Fermi liquid behavior, topological properties, and quantum phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a star graph perspective and unitary renormalization group technique to analyze ground state degeneracy and topological features in multi-channel Kondo physics.

Findings

Power-law divergence of impurity susceptibility at low temperature

Non-zero mutual information indicating inter-channel correlations

Presence of topological quantum numbers in the ground state manifold

Abstract

We study the overscreened multi-channel Kondo (MCK) model using the recently developed unitary renormalization group (URG) technique. Our results display the importance of ground state degeneracy in explaining various important properties like the breakdown of screening and the presence of local non-Fermi liquids. The impurity susceptibility of the intermediate coupling fixed point Hamiltonian in the zero-bandwidth (or star graph) limit shows a power-law divergence at low temperature, signalling its critical nature. Despite the absence of inter-channel coupling in the MCK fixed point Hamiltonian, the study of mutual information between any two channels shows non-zero correlation between them. A spectral flow analysis of the star graph reveals that the degenerate ground state manifold possesses topological quantum numbers. The low energy effective Hamiltonian obtained upon adding a finite non-zero conduction bath dispersion to the star graph Hamiltonian for both the two and three-channel cases displays the presence of local non-Fermi liquids arising from inter-channel quantum fluctuations. Discontinuous behaviour is observed in several measures of ground state entanglement, signalling the underlying orthogonality catastrophe associated with the degenerate ground state manifold. We extend our results to underscreened and perfectly screened MCK models through duality arguments. A study of channel anisotropy under renormalisation flow reveals a series of quantum phase transitions due to the change in ground state degeneracy. Our work thus presents a template for the study of how a degenerate ground state manifold arising from symmetry and duality properties in a multichannel quantum impurity model can lead to novel multicritical phases at intermediate coupling.