English

Kondo effect in XXZ spin chains

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

The Kondo effect in a one-dimensional spin-1/2 XXZ model in the gapless XY regime (-1<Delta<=1) is studied both analytically and numerically. In our model an impurity spin (S=1/2) is coupled to a single spin in the XXZ spin chain. Perturbative renormalization-group (RG) analysis is performed for various limiting cases to deduce low-energy fixed points. It is shown that in the ground state the impurity spin is screened by forming a singlet with a spin in the host XXZ chain. In the antiferromagnetic side (0<Delta<=1) the host chain is cut into two semi-infinite chains by the singlet. In the ferromagnetic side (-1<Delta<0), on the other hand, the host XXZ chain remains as a single chain through "healing" of a weakened bond in the low-energy (long-distance) limit. The density matrix renormalization group method is used to study the size scaling of finite-size energy gaps and the power-law decay of correlation functions in the ground state. The numerical results are in good agreement with the predictions of the RG analysis. Low-temperature behaviors of specific heat and susceptibility are also discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9802258,
  title  = {Kondo effect in XXZ spin chains},
  author = {A. Furusaki and T. Hikihara},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9802258},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

11 pages including 12 Postscript figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:02:24.845Z