Macroscopic quantum phenomena in strongly correlated fermionic systems

Macroscopic quantum phenomena in strongly correlated fermionic systems

It took several years after the idea of a zero-temperature phase transition emerged to realize the impact of such a quantum critical point over a large region of the phase diagram. Observed in many experimental examples, this quantum critical regime is not yet understood in details theoretically, and one needs to develop new approaches. In the first part, we focused on the ferromagnetic quantum critical point. After constructing a controlled approach allowing us to describe the quantum critical regime, we show through the computation of the static spin susceptibility that the ferromagnetic quantum critical point is unstable, destroyed internally by an effective dynamic long-range interaction generated by the Landau damping. In the second part, we revisit the exactly screened single impurity Kondo model, using a bosonic representation of the local spin and treating it in the limit of large spin degeneracy N. We show that, in this regime, the ground-state is a non-trivial Fermi liquid, unlike what was advocated by previous similar studies. We then extend our method to encompass the physics of two coupled impurities, for which our results are qualitatively comparable to the ones obtained from various approaches carried out in the past. We also develop a Luttinger-Ward formalism, enabling us to cure some of the drawbacks of the original method used to describe the single impurity physics. Finally, we present the main ideas and the first results for an extension of the method towards the description of a Kondo lattice, relevant for the understanding of the quantum critical regime of heavy fermion materials.

SPhT, CEA/Saclay

The event is finished.

Date

19 June 2006
Expired!

Time

14h00 – 0h00

Location

Amphi Claude Bloch, Bât. 774
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