Biomedical subjects

Matthias Vojta

Publications and source records attributed to Matthias Vojta.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Quantum criticality in a double-quantum-dot system.

We discuss the realization of the quantum-critical non-Fermi-liquid state, originally discovered within the two-impurity Kondo model, in double-quantum-dot systems. Contrary to common belief, the corresponding fixed point is robust against particle-hole and various other asymmetries and is unstable only to charge transfer between the two dots. We propose an experimental setup where such charge transfer processes are suppressed, allowing a controlled approach to the quantum-critical state. We also discuss transport and scaling properties in the vicinity of the critical point.

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PubMed2006

Spin excitations in fluctuating stripe phases of doped cuprate superconductors.

Using a phenomenological lattice model of coupled spin and charge modes, we determine the spin susceptibility in the presence of fluctuating stripe charge order. We assume the charge fluctuations to be slow compared to those of the spins, and combine Monte Carlo simulations for the charge order parameter with exact diagonalization of the spin sector. Our calculations unify the spin dynamics of both static and fluctuating stripe phases and support the notion of a universal spin excitation spectrum in doped cuprate superconductors.

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PubMed2006

Signatures of a noise-induced quantum phase transition in a mesoscopic metal ring.

We study a mesoscopic ring with an inline quantum dot threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux. Zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic environment capacitively coupled to the ring, with omega(s) spectral density, can suppress tunneling through the dot, resulting in a quantum phase transition from an unpolarized to a polarized phase. We show that robust signatures of such a transition can be found in the response of the persistent current in the ring to the external flux as well as to the bias between the dot and the arm. Particular attention is paid to the experimentally relevant cases of Ohmic (s = 1) and sub-Ohmic (s = 1/2) noise.

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PubMed2006

Kondo effect in bosonic spin liquids.

In a metal, a magnetic impurity is fully screened by the conduction electrons at low temperature. In contrast, impurity moments coupled to spin-1 bulk bosons, such as triplet excitations in paramagnets, are only partially screened, even at the bulk quantum critical point. We argue that this difference is not due to the quantum statistics of the host particles but instead related to the structure of the impurity-host coupling, by demonstrating that frustrated magnets with bosonic spinon excitations can display a bosonic version of the Kondo effect. However, the Bose statistics of the bulk implies distinct behavior, such as a weak-coupling impurity quantum phase transition, and perfect screening for a range of impurity spin values. We discuss implications of our results for the compound Cs2CuCl4, as well as possible extensions to multicomponent bosonic gases.

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PubMed2005

Quantum phase transitions in the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model: failure of the quantum-classical mapping.

The effective theories for many quantum phase transitions can be mapped onto those of classical transitions. Here we show that the naive mapping fails for the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model which describes a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, J(omega) proportional, variantomega(s). Using an epsilon expansion we prove that this model has a quantum transition controlled by an interacting fixed point at small s, and support this by numerical calculations. In contrast, the corresponding classical long-range Ising model is known to display mean-field transition behavior for 0 < s < 1/2, controlled by a noninteracting fixed point. The failure of the quantum-classical mapping is argued to arise from the long-ranged interaction in imaginary time in the quantum model.

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PubMed2004

Magnetic excitations in a bond-centered stripe phase: spin waves far from the semiclassical limit.

Using a spin-only model, we compute spin excitation spectra in a bond-centered stripe state with long-range magnetic order. We employ a bond operator formalism, which naturally captures both dimerization and broken spin symmetry in a unified framework. At low energies, the spin excitations resemble spin waves, but at higher energies they are very similar to spin-one excitations of isolated spin ladders. Our theory does well describe neutron scattering data [Nature (London) 429, 534 (2004)]] on La2-xBaxCuO4, pointing towards bond order in this material.

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PubMed2004

Exotic versus conventional scaling and universality in a disordered bilayer quantum heisenberg antiferromagnet.

We present Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional bilayer quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet with random dimer dilution. In contrast with exotic scaling scenarios found in other random quantum systems, the quantum phase transition in this system is characterized by a finite-disorder fixed point with power-law scaling. After accounting for corrections to scaling, with a leading irrelevant exponent of omega approximately 0.48, we find universal critical exponents z=1.310(6) and nu=1.16(3). We discuss the consequences of these findings and suggest new experiments.

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PubMed2003

Numerical renormalization group for bosonic systems and application to the sub-ohmic spin-boson model.

We describe the generalization of Wilson's numerical renormalization group method to quantum impurity models with a bosonic bath, providing a general nonperturbative approach to bosonic impurity models which can access exponentially small energies and temperatures. As an application, we consider the spin-boson model, describing a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, J(omega) proportional to omega(s). We find clear evidence for a line of continuous quantum phase transitions for sub-Ohmic bath exponents 0<s<1; the line terminates in the well-known Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at s=1. Contact is made with results from perturbative renormalization group, and various other applications are outlined.

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PubMed2003

Fractionalized fermi liquids.

In spatial dimensions d>or=2, Kondo lattice models of conduction and local moment electrons can exhibit a fractionalized, nonmagnetic state (FL(*)) with a Fermi surface of sharp electronlike quasiparticles, enclosing a volume quantized by (rho(a)-1)(mod 2), with rho(a) the mean number of all electrons per unit cell of the ground state. Such states have fractionalized excitations linked to the deconfined phase of a gauge theory. Confinement leads to a conventional Fermi liquid state, with a Fermi volume quantized by rho(a)(mod 2), and an intermediate superconducting state for the Z2 gauge case. The FL(*) state permits a second order metamagnetic transition in an applied magnetic field.

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PubMed2003

Pseudogap Fermi-Bose Kondo model.

We consider a magnetic impurity coupled to both fermionic quasiparticles with a pseudogap density of states and bosonic spin fluctuations. Using renormalization group and large-N calculations we investigate the phase diagram of the resulting Fermi-Bose Kondo model. We show that the Kondo temperature is strongly reduced by low-energy spin fluctuations, and make connections to experiments in cuprate superconductors. Furthermore, we derive an exact exponent for the critical behavior of the conduction electron T matrix, and propose our findings to be relevant for certain scenarios of local quantum criticality in heavy-fermion metals.

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