• Open Access

Nonequilibrium spatiotemporal formation of the Kondo screening cloud on a lattice

Martin Nuss, Martin Ganahl, Enrico Arrigoni, Wolfgang von der Linden, and Hans Gerd Evertz
Phys. Rev. B 91, 085127 – Published 27 February 2015

Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium formation of a spin screening cloud that accompanies the quenching of a local magnetic moment immersed in a Fermi sea at zero temperature. Based on high-precision density matrix renormalization-group results for the interacting single-impurity Anderson model, we discuss the real-time evolution after a quantum quench in the impurity-reservoir hybridization using time-evolving block decimation. We report emergent length and time scales in the spatiotemporal structure of nonlocal correlation functions in the spin and the charge density channel. At equilibrium, our data for the correlation functions and the extracted length scales show good agreement with existing results, as do local time-dependent observables at the impurity. In the time-dependent data, we identify a major signal which defines a “light cone” moving at the Fermi velocity and a ferromagnetic component in its wake. Inside the light cone we find that the structure of the nonequilibrium correlation functions emerges on two time scales. Initially, the qualitative structure of the correlation functions develops rapidly at the lattice Fermi velocity. Subsequently the spin correlations converge to the equilibrium results on a much larger time scale. This process sets a dynamic energy scale, which we identify to be proportional to the Kondo temperature. Outside the light cone we observe two different power-law decays of the correlation functions in space, with time- and interaction-strength-independent exponents.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
5 More
  • Received 5 September 2014
  • Revised 13 February 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.085127

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Martin Nuss*, Martin Ganahl, Enrico Arrigoni, Wolfgang von der Linden, and Hans Gerd Evertz

  • Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria

  • *martin.nuss@tugraz.at

Article Text

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 91, Iss. 8 — 15 February 2015

Reuse & Permissions
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review B

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

×

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×