Anderson Impurity Research Articles

Nonequilibrium steady state full counting statistics in the noncrossing approximation.

Quantum transport is often characterized not just by mean observables like the particle or energy current but by their fluctuations and higher moments, which can act as detailed probes of the physical mechanisms at play. However, relatively few theoretical methods are able to access the full counting statistics (FCS) of transport processes through electronic junctions in strongly correlated regimes. While most experiments are concerned with steady state properties, most accurate theoretical methods rely on computationally expensive propagation from a tractable initial state. Here, we propose a simple approach for computing the FCS through a junction directly at the steady state, utilizing the propagator noncrossing approximation. Compared to time propagation, our method offers reduced computational cost at the same level of approximation, but the idea can also be used within other approximations or as a basis for numerically exact techniques. We demonstrate the method's capabilities by investigating the impact of lead dimensionality on electronic transport in the nonequilibrium Anderson impurity model at the onset of Kondo physics. Our results reveal a distinct signature of one dimensional leads in the noise and Fano factor not present for other dimensionalities, showing the potential of FCS measurements as a probe of the environment surrounding a quantum dot.

Geometrical perspective on spin-lattice density-functional theory.

A recently developed viewpoint on the fundamentals of density-functional theory for finite interacting spin-lattice systems that centers around the notion of degeneracy regions is presented. It allows for an entirely geometrical description of the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem and v-representability. The phenomena receive exemplification by an Anderson impurity model and other small-lattice examples. The case of adiabatic change and the time-dependent setting are examined as well.

Grassmann time-evolving matrix product operators: An efficient numerical approach for fermionic path integral simulations.

Developing numerical exact solvers for open quantum systems is a challenging task due to the non-perturbative and non-Markovian nature when coupling to structured environments. The Feynman-Vernon influence functional approach is a powerful analytical tool to study the dynamics of open quantum systems. Numerical treatments of the influence functional including the quasi-adiabatic propagator technique and the tensor-network-based time-evolving matrix product operator method have proven to be efficient in studying open quantum systems with bosonic environments. However, the numerical implementation of the fermionic path integral suffers from the Grassmann algebra involved. In this work, we present a detailed introduction to the Grassmann time-evolving matrix product operator method for fermionic open quantum systems. In particular, we introduce the concepts of Grassmann tensor, signed matrix product operator, and Grassmann matrix product state to handle the Grassmann path integral. Using the single-orbital Anderson impurity model as an example, we review the numerical benchmarks for structured fermionic environments for real-time nonequilibrium dynamics, real-time and imaginary-time equilibration dynamics, and its application as an impurity solver. These benchmarks show that our method is a robust and promising numerical approach to study strong coupling physics and non-Markovian dynamics. It can also serve as an alternative impurity solver to study strongly correlated quantum matter with dynamical mean-field theory.

Mpsqd: A matrix product state based Python package to simulate closed and open system quantum dynamics.

We introduce a Python package based on matrix product states (MPS) to simulate both the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) and the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM). The wave function in the TDSE or the reduced density operator/auxiliary density operators in the HEOM are represented using MPS. A matrix product operator (MPO) is then constructed to represent the Hamiltonian in the TDSE or the generalized Liouvillian in the HEOM. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method and the time-dependent variational principle are used to propagate the MPS. Several examples, including the nonadiabatic interconversion dynamics of the pyrazine molecule, excitation energy transfer dynamics in molecular aggregates and photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, the spin-boson model, a laser driven two-state model, the Holstein model, and charge transport in the Anderson impurity model, are presented to demonstrate the capability of the package.

Inchworm quasi Monte Carlo for quantum impurities

The inchworm expansion is a promising approach to solving strongly correlated quantum impurity models due to its reduction of the sign problem in real and imaginary time. However, inchworm Monte Carlo is computationally expensive, converging as 1/N where N is the number of samples. We show that the imaginary-time integration is amenable to quasi Monte Carlo, with parametrically better 1/N convergence, by mapping the Sobol low-discrepancy sequence from the hypercube to the simplex with the so-called Root transform. This extends the applicability of the inchworm method to, e.g., multiorbital Anderson impurity models with off-diagonal hybridization, relevant for materials simulation, where continuous-time hybridization expansion Monte Carlo has a severe sign problem. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Vacancy-Induced Tunable Kondo Effect in Twisted Bilayer Graphene.

In single sheets of graphene, vacancy-induced states have been shown to host an effective spin-1/2 hole that can be Kondo screened at low temperatures. Here, we show how these vacancy-induced impurity states survive in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), which thus provides a tunable system to probe the critical destruction of the Kondo effect in pseudogap hosts. Abinitio calculations and atomic-scale modeling are used to determine the nature of the vacancy states in the vicinity of the magic angle in TBG, demonstrating that the vacancy can be treated as a quantum impurity. Utilizing this insight, we construct an Anderson impurity model with a TBG host that we solve using the numerical renormalization group combined with the kernel polynomial method. We determine the phase diagram of the model and show how there is a strict dichotomy between vacancies in the AA/BB versus AB/BA tunneling regions. In AB/BA vacancies, the Kondo temperature at the magic angle develops a broad distribution with a tail to vanishing temperatures due to multifractal wave functions at the magic angle. We argue that scanning tunneling microscopy in the vicinity of the vacancy can act as a probe of both the critical single-particle states and the underlying many-body ground state in magic-angle TBG.

Anderson impurity mechanism for a multi-level model in δ-Pu

Abstract Electronic correlations and spin–orbit interactions in plutonium create variations in the bonding behavior of each of its allotropes. In δ-Pu, the 5f electrons lie at the tipping point between itinerant and localized behavior which has made the use of mixed-level models successful in describing its mechanical properties. The mechanism for the emergence of a mixed-level model has not yet been understood. We use a series of density functional theory approximations to understand the interactions that create a mixed-level description of δ-Pu which leads to accurate physical properties. With the intersite interactions present in the hybrid functional, we show that a single 5f electron engages in orbital-selective bonding that can be understood with an Anderson impurity picture. The Anderson model gives us a mechanism to understand how the bonding in δ-Pu evolves as a function of the interactions in the material such that we obtain both the accuracy and physics of the multi-level models from ab initio theory.

Decomposing Imaginary-Time Feynman Diagrams Using Separable Basis Functions: Anderson Impurity Model Strong-Coupling Expansion

We present a deterministic algorithm for the efficient evaluation of imaginary-time diagrams based on the recently introduced discrete Lehmann representation (DLR) of imaginary-time Green’s functions. In addition to the efficient discretization of diagrammatic integrals afforded by its approximation properties, the DLR basis is separable in imaginary-time, allowing us to decompose diagrams into linear combinations of nested sequences of one-dimensional products and convolutions. Focusing on the strong-coupling bold-line expansion of generalized Anderson impurity models, we show that our strategy reduces the computational complexity of evaluating an Mth-order diagram at inverse temperature β and spectral width ωmax from O((βωmax)2M−1) for a direct quadrature to O(M(log(βωmax))M+1), with controllable high-order accuracy. We benchmark our algorithm using third-order expansions for multiband impurity problems with off-diagonal hybridization and spin-orbit coupling, presenting comparisons with exact diagonalization and quantum Monte Carlo approaches. In particular, we perform a self-consistent dynamical mean-field theory calculation for a three-band Hubbard model with strong spin-orbit coupling representing a minimal model of Ca2RuO4, demonstrating the promise of the method for modeling realistic strongly correlated multiband materials. For both strong and weak coupling expansions of low and intermediate order, in which diagrams can be enumerated, our method provides an efficient, straightforward, and robust blackbox evaluation procedure. In this sense, it fills a gap between diagrammatic approximations of the lowest order, which are simple and inexpensive but inaccurate, and those based on Monte Carlo sampling of high-order diagrams. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Thermoelectric transport and current noise through a multilevel Anderson impurity: Three-body Fermi liquid corrections in quantum dots and magnetic alloys

Thermoelectric transport and current noise through a multilevel Anderson impurity: Three-body Fermi liquid corrections in quantum dots and magnetic alloys

Error mitigation in variational quantum eigensolvers using tailored probabilistic machine learning

Quantum computing technology has the potential to revolutionize the simulation of materials and molecules in the near future. A primary challenge in achieving near-term quantum advantage is effectively mitigating the noise effects inherent in current quantum processing units (QPUs). This challenge is also decisive in the context of quantum-classical hybrid schemes employing variational quantum eigensolvers (VQEs) that have attracted significant interest in recent years. In this paper, we present a method that employs parametric Gaussian process regression (GPR) within an active learning framework to mitigate noise in quantum computations, focusing on VQEs. Our approach, grounded in probabilistic machine learning, exploits a custom prior based on the VQE ansatz to capture the underlying correlations between VQE outputs for different variational parameters, thereby enhancing both accuracy and efficiency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on a two-site Anderson impurity model and a eight-site Heisenberg model, using the IBM open-source quantum computing framework, Qiskit, showcasing substantial improvements in the accuracy of VQE outputs while reducing the number of direct QPU energy evaluations. This paper contributes to the ongoing efforts in quantum-error mitigation and optimization, bringing us a step closer to realizing the potential of quantum computing in quantum matter simulations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Hybridization of an s-wave impurity with graphene lattice

Hybridization function is a quantity characterizing electron hoppings between an impurity and a host material in which the impurity resides, a full understandinging of it is crucial for studying correlation effects in various impurity problems. This work studies the hybridization function for the Anderson impurity model describing a single-orbital impurity on a honeycomb lattice simulating graphene and presents a calculation approach to obtain this function at low energy. Within this approach, the general form of the hybridization function in graphene is presented and analytical expressions of low-energy hybridization spectrum are obtained. The results quantitatively match numerical solutions for different impurity positions on the lattice. The effect of the low-energy hybridization spectrum and the capability to predict the correlated effects of the impurity problem are discussed thoroughly, suggesting that different types of pseudogap Kondo effect may occur at different impurity positions.

Magnetic impurity states of a Fermi system in a local magnetic field

The ultracold atomic Fermi gas provides a flexible and controllable experimental platform for exploring magnetic impurity states. In this study, we theoretically examine the magnetic impurity states in a Fermi system with spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 under a local magnetic field. Firstly, the spin-1/2 impurity system contains three types of magnetic solutions. One type magnetic solution with higher energy can be regarded as the result of induced magnetization of a trivial solution, while the other two types magnetic solutions with lower energy can be understood as the results of Zeeman splitting of nontrivial solutions with double degeneracy. Notably, the magnetic solution corresponding to the spin state parallel to the Zeeman magnetic field is always the most stable in terms of the energy. Secondly, we extend the idea of studying spin-1/2 impurity to spin-3/2 impurity, where the half-filled state of impurity atoms is calculated. We found that four types of magnetic solutions at zero magnetic field were split into four, six, four, and twelve new magnetic solutions in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field, respectively. We obtained that the magnetic solution corresponding to the spin state parallel to the magnetic field is the most stable, and its energy is lower than that of the corresponding magnetic solution at zero magnetic field. Therefore, the introduction of a local magnetic field is beneficial for the formation of magnetic impurity states. Finally, the calculated data illustrate that the Anderson impurity model we adopt exhibits invariance under the combined transformations of spin-flip and particle–hole.

Nanoscale single-electron box with a floating lead for quantum sensing: Modeling and device characterization

We present an in-depth analysis of a single-electron box (SEB) biased through a floating node technique that is common in charge-coupled devices. The device is analyzed and characterized in the context of single-electron charge sensing techniques for integrated silicon quantum dots (QD). The unique aspect of our SEB design is the incorporation of a metallic floating node, strategically employed for sensing and precise injection of electrons into an electrostatically formed QD. To analyze the SEB, we propose an extended multi-orbital Anderson impurity model (MOAIM), adapted to our nanoscale SEB system, that is used to predict theoretically the behavior of the SEB in the context of a charge sensing application. The validation of the model and the sensing technique has been carried out on a QD fabricated in a fully depleted silicon on insulator process (FD-SOI) on a 22-nm CMOS technology node. We demonstrate the MOAIM's efficacy in predicting the observed electronic behavior and elucidating the complex electron dynamics and correlations in the SEB. The results of our study reinforce the versatility and precision of the model in the realm of nanoelectronics and highlight the practical utility of the metallic floating node as a mechanism for charge injection and detection in integrated QDs. Finally, we identify the limitations of our model in capturing higher order effects observed in our measurements and propose future outlooks to reconcile some of these discrepancies.

Non-perturbative intertwining between spin and charge correlations: A ``smoking gun'' single-boson-exchange result

We study the microscopic mechanism controlling the interplay between local charge and local spin fluctuations in correlated electron systems via a thorough investigation of the generalized on-site charge susceptibility of several fundamental many-electron models, such as the Hubbard atom, the Anderson impurity model, and the Hubbard model. By decomposing the numerically determined generalized susceptibility in terms of physically transparent single-boson exchange processes, we unveil the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the breakdown of the self-consistent many-electron perturbation expansion. In particular, we unambiguously identify the origin of the significant suppression of its diagonal entries in (Matsubara) frequency space and the slight increase of the off-diagonal ones which cause the breakdown. The suppression effect on the diagonal elements originates directly from the electronic scattering on local magnetic moments, reflecting their increasingly longer lifetime as well as their enhanced effective coupling with the electrons. Instead, the slight and diffuse enhancement of the off-diagonal terms can be mostly ascribed to multiboson scattering processes. The strong intertwining between spin and charge sectors is partly weakened at the Kondo temperature due to a progressive reduction of the effective spin-fermion coupling of local magnetic fluctuations in the low frequency regime. Our analysis, thus, clarifies the precise mechanism through which the physical information is transferred between different scattering channels of interacting electron problems and highlights the pivotal role played by such an intertwining in the physics of correlated electrons beyond the perturbative regime.

Grassmann time-evolving matrix product operators for equilibrium quantum impurity problems

Tensor-network-based methods are promising candidates to solve quantum impurity problems (QIP). They are free of sampling noises and the sign problem compared to state-of-the-art continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo methods. Recent progress made in tensor-network-based impurity solvers is to use the Feynman–Vernon influence functional to integrate out the bath analytically, retaining only the impurity dynamics and representing it compactly as a matrix product state. The recently proposed Grassmann time-evolving matrix product operator (GTEMPO) method is one of the representative methods in this direction. In this work, we systematically study the performance of GTEMPO in solving equilibrium QIPs at a finite temperature with a semicircular spectrum density of the bath. Our results show that its computational cost would generally increase as the temperature goes down and scale exponentially with the number of orbitals. In particular, the single-orbital Anderson impurity model can be efficiently solved with this method, for two orbitals we estimate that one could possibly reach inverse temperature β ≈ 20 if high-performance computing techniques are utilized, while beyond that only very high-temperature regimes can be reached in the current formalism. Our work paves the way to apply GTEMPO as an imaginary-time impurity solver.

The PointGroupNRG code for numerical renormalization group calculations with discrete point-group symmetries

The numerical renormalization group (NRG) has been widely used as a magnetic impurity solver since the pioneering works by Wilson. Over the past decades, a significant attention has been focused on the application of symmetries in order to reduce the computational cost of the calculations and to improve their accuracy. In particular, a notable progress has been made in implementing continuous symmetries such as SO(3), useful for studying impurities in an isotropic medium, or SU(N), which is applicable to a wide range of systems. In this work, we focus on the application of discrete point group symmetries, which are particularly relevant for impurity systems in metals where crystal field effects are important. With this aim, we have developed an original NRG code written in the Julia language, PointGroupNRG, where we have implemented crystal point-group symmetries for the Anderson impurity model, as well as the continuous spin and charge symmetries. Among other results, we demonstrate the advantage of our procedure by applying the code to a two-impurity model with RKKY interaction and an impurity system with two orbitals of Eg symmetry and two channels. We also provide benchmarks to show the performance improvements obtained by exploiting the orbital symmetries.

Kondo frustration via charge fluctuations: a route to Mott localisation

We propose a minimal effective impurity model that captures the phenomenology of the Mott–Hubbard metal–insulator transition of the half-filled Hubbard model on the Bethe lattice in infinite dimensions as observed by dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). This involves extending the standard Anderson impurity model Hamiltonian to include an explicit Kondo coupling J, as well as a local on-site correlation Ub on the conduction bath site connected directly to the impurity. For the case of attractive local bath correlations (), the extended Anderson impurity model (e-SIAM) sheds new light on several aspects of the DMFT phase diagram. For example, the T = 0 metal-to-insulator quantum phase transition (QPT) is preceded by an excited state QPT (ESQPT) where the local moment eigenstates are emergent in the low-lying spectrum. Long-ranged fluctuations are observed near both the QPT and ESQPT, suggesting that they are the origin of the quantum critical scaling observed recently at high temperatures in DMFT simulations. The T = 0 gapless excitations at the quantum critical point display particle-hole interconversion processes, and exhibit power-law behaviour in self-energies and two-particle correlations. These are signatures of non-Fermi liquid behaviour that emerge from the partial breakdown of the Kondo screening.

Impurity Knight shift in quantum dot Josephson junctions

Spectroscopy of a Josephson junction device with an embedded quantum dot reveals the presence of a contribution to level splitting in external magnetic field that is proportional to \cos\phicosϕ, where \phiϕ is the gauge-invariant phase difference across the junction. To elucidate the origin of this unanticipated effect, we systematically study the Zeeman splitting of spinful subgap states in the superconducting Anderson impurity model. The magnitude of the splitting is renormalized by the exchange interaction between the local moment and the continuum of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in a variant of the Knight shift phenomenon. The leading term in the shift is linear in the hybridisation strength \GammaΓ (quadratic in electron hopping), while the subleading term is quadratic in \GammaΓ (quartic in electron hopping) and depends on \phiϕ due to spin-polarization-dependent corrections to the Josephson energy of the device. The amplitude of the \phiϕ-dependent part is largest for experimentally relevant parameters beyond the perturbative regime where it is investigated using numerical renormalization group calculations. Such magnetic-field-tunable coupling between the quantum dot spin and the Josephson current could find wide use in superconducting spintronics.

Extending Conceptual Density Functional Theory toward First-Order Reduced Density Matrices: An Open Subsystems Viewpoint on the Fukui Matrix.

As a matrix extension of the Fukui function, a reactivity descriptor grounded within Conceptual Density Functional Theory, the Fukui matrix extends Frontier Molecular Orbital Theory to correlated regimes with its eigendecomposition in Fukui occupations and Fukui naturals. Despite successful applications, the questions remain as to whether replacing a quantity derived from a purely density-based framework by its matrix extension is theoretically well-founded and what chemical information is contained in the corresponding eigendecomposition. In this study, we show that the matrix extension of the Fukui function is only well-defined if one also generalizes the external potential to become nonlocal, leading to the introduction of Conceptual First-Order Reduced Density Matrix Functional Theory. By interpreting the Anderson impurity model from an interacting open subsystem perspective, we show how Fukui occupations and Fukui naturals reflect the influence of an increasing (static) correlation and which characteristic patterns we should expect within a molecular context. This study represents a step in generalizing Conceptual Density Functional Theory beyond its density-based perspective.

Chemical bonding in americium oxides probed by X-ray spectroscopy

The electronic structure and the chemical state in Am binary oxides and Am-doped UO_2 were studied by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy at shallow Am core (4d and 5d) edges. In particular, the Am 5f states were probed and the nature of their bonding to the oxygen states was analyzed. The interpretation of the experimental data was supported by the Anderson impurity model (AIM) calculations which took into account the full multiplet structure due to the interaction between 5f electrons as well as the interaction with the core hole. The sensitivity of the branching ratio of the Am 4d_{3/2} and 4d_{5/2} X-ray absorption lines to the chemical state of Am was shown using Am binary oxides as reference systems. The observed ratio for Am-doped UO_2 suggests that at least at low Am concentrations, americium is in the Am(III) state in the UO_2 lattice. To confirm the validity of the applied AIM approach, the analysis of the Am 4f X-ray photoelectron spectra of AmO_2 and Am_2O_3 was also performed which revealed a good agreement between experiment and calculations. As a whole, AmO_2 can be classified as the charge-transfer compound with the 5f occupancy (n_f) equal to 5.73 electrons, while Am_2O_3 is rather a Mott–Hubbard system with n_f = 6.05.