Quantum critical points of an anisotropic multichannel Kondo impurity

Abstract

The low-temperature behavior of a magnetic impurity of spin S interacting with an electron gas via an anisotropic spin exchange is studied via Bethe’s ansatz. The multichannel Kondo model with U(1) invariance is integrable as a function of two continuous (the exchange and the anisotropy) and two discrete parameters, namely the impurity spin S and the number of channels n. As a function of S and n we distinguish: (i) the compensated case with n=2S, (ii) the overcompensated case if n>2S, and (iii) the undercompensated case (n<2S). While in case (i) the ground state is a singlet, the cases (ii), and (iii) yield quantum critical points. The undercompensated one is of a new type with the critical exponents depending on the anisotropy.