Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior in a Disordered Kondo Alloy Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates a disordered Kondo alloy model revealing non-Fermi liquid behavior near a quantum critical point, characterized by singular susceptibilities and unconventional spin dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a mean-field model of a disordered Kondo alloy with numerical and analytic analysis, highlighting novel quantum critical phenomena and non-Fermi liquid signatures.

Findings

Quantum critical point at J ≈ T_K^0 with singular susceptibility behavior.

Non-integer power-law temperature dependence of spin susceptibility.

Unusual ω-dependence of the dissipative susceptibility at criticality.

Abstract

We study a mean-field model of a Kondo alloy using numerical techniques and analytic approximations. In this model, randomly distributed magnetic impurities interact with a band of conduction electrons and have a residual RKKY coupling of strength $J$. This system has a quantum critical point at $J=J_{c} \sim T_{K}^0$, the Kondo scale of the problem. The $T$ dependence of the spin susceptibility near the quantum critical point is singular with $\chi(0)-\chi(T) \propto T^{\gamma}$ and non-integer $\gamma$. At $J_{c}$, $\gamma = 3/4$. For $J\lesssim J_{c}$ there are two crossovers with decreasing $T$, first to $\gamma=3/2$ and then to $\gamma=2$, the Fermi-liquid value. The dissipative part of the time-dependent susceptibility $\chi''(\omega)\propto \omega$ as $\omega \to 0$ except at the quantum critical point where we find $\chi''(\omega) \propto \sqrt{\omega}$. The characteristic spin-fluctuation energy vanishes at the quantum critical point with $\omega_{\rm sf} \sim (1-J/J_{c})$ for $J\lesssim J_{c}$, and $\omega_{\rm sf} \propto T^{3/2}$ at the critical coupling.