Kondo polarons in a one-dimensional Fermi gas

Arguments are presented that in the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model f-electron spins participate in filling of the Fermi sea. It is shown that in its paramagnetic phase this model belongs to the spin-1/2 Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid universality class. The ratio of the spin and charge velocities v_s/v_c and K_c are estimated to be of the order of (T_K/E_F)^{1/2}.

The dynamics of a single impurity in an environment is a fundamental problem in many-body physics. In the solid state, a well-known case is an impurity coupled to a bosonic bath, for example lattice vibrations. Here the impurity together with its accompanying lattice distortion form a new entity, a polaron. This quasiparticle plays an important role in the spectral function of high-Tc superconductors as well as in colossal-magnetoresistance in manganites. For impurities in a ...

We study the fate of the Kondo effect with one-dimensional conduction baths at very low densities, such that the system explores the bottom of the conduction band. This can involve either finite low densities, or a small number of fixed conduction electrons in a large system, i.e., the limit of large bath sizes can be taken with either fixed small density or with fixed number. We characterize the Kondo physics for such systems through the energy gain due to Kondo coupling, wh...

We report on exact results for the low-temperature thermodynamics of a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ magnetic impurity coupled to a one-dimensional interacting electron system. By using boundary conformal field theory, we show that there are only two types of critical behaviors consistent with the symmetries of the problem: {\em either} a local Fermi liquid, {\em or} a theory with an anomalous response identical to that recently proposed by Furusaki and Nagaosa. Suppression of back scat...

A mobile impurity particle immersed in a quantum fluid forms a polaron - a quasiparticle consisting of the impurity and a local disturbance of the fluid around it. We ask what happens to a one-dimensional polaron after a kick, i.e. an abrupt application of a force that instantly delivers a finite impulse to the impurity. In the framework of an integrable model describing an impurity in a one-dimensional gas of fermions or hard-core bosons, we calculate the distribution of the...

We study an impurity atom in a two-dimensional Fermi gas using variational wave functions for (i) an impurity dressed by particle-hole excitations (polaron) and (ii) a dimer consisting of the impurity and a majority atom. In contrast to three dimensions, where similar calculations predict a sharp transition to a dimer state with increasing interspecies attraction, we show that the polaron ansatz always gives a lower energy. However, the exact solution for a heavy impurity rev...

We investigate the Kondo effect in two-dimensional disordered electron systems using a finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo method. Depending on the position of a magnetic impurity, the local moment is screened or unscreened by the spin of the conduction electron. The results suggest that the Kondo temperature takes different values depending on the position of a magnetic impurity. We show that the distribution of the Kondo temperature becomes wide and the weight at $T_K=0$...

We study the ground state and excitations of a one-dimensional trapped polarized Fermi gas interacting with a single impurity. First, we study the tunnelling dynamics of the impurity through a potential barrier, such as one effectively created by a double-well trap. To this end, we perform an exact diagonalization of the full few-body Hamiltonian and analyze the results in a Local Density Approximation. Off-diagonal and one-particle correlation matrices are studied and are sh...

We consider a magnetic impurity in the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain which is equivalent to the two-channel Kondo problem in terms of the field theoretical description. Using a modification of the transfer-matrix density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) we are able to determine local and global properties in the thermodynamic limit. The cross-over function for the impurity susceptibility is calculated over a large temperature range, which exhibits universal data-collaps...

The single impurity Kondo problem in the one-dimensional $\delta$-potential Fermi gas is exactly solved for two sets of special coupling constants via Bethe ansatz. It is found that ferromagnetic Kondo screening does occur in one case which confirms the Furusaki-Nagaosa conjecture while in the other case it does not, which we explain in a simple physical picture. The surface energy, the low temperature specific heat and the Pauli susceptibility induced by the impurity and the...