Instability of the Fermi-Liquid Fixed Point in an Extended Kondo Model

Abstract

We study an extended SU(N) single-impurity Kondo model in which the impurity spin is described by a combination of Abrikosov fermions and Schwinger bosons. Our aim is to describe both the quasiparticle-like excitations and the locally critical modes observed in various physical situations, including non-Fermi liquid (NFL) behavior in heavy fermions in the vicinity of a quantum critical point and anomalous transport properties in quantum wires. In contrast with models with either pure bosonic or pure fermionic impurities, the strong coupling fixed point is unstable against the conduction electron kinetic term under certain conditions. The stability region of the strong coupling fixed point coincides with the region where the partially screened, effective impurity repels the electrons on adjacent sites. In the instability region, the impurity tends to attract (N — 1) electrons to the neighboring sites, giving rise to a double-stage Kondo effect with additional screening of the impurity.