Quantum-coherent transport of a heavy particle in a fermionic bath

In this review, a detailed discussion of the behaviour of a heavy particle interacting with a Fermi sea is given. Particular emphasis is put on the issue of how strong correlations influence coherence and transport of the particle. First, we investigate the question of whether the heavy particle is a well defined quasiparticle at low temperatures. While in one dimension ( D = 1) and at a van Hove singularity in D = 2 the coherence of the particle is destroyed, the quasiparticle weight is finite in higher dimensions. The most important transport quantity is the diffusion constant or mobility of the heavy particle. We are able to describe both the well known high-temperature properties and the cross-over to the lowest temperatures in a unified approximation scheme based on a self-consistent evaluation of an effective action. Two strong-correlation effects of independent origin are discussed. The first arises if the scattering of the fermions from the heavy particle is nearly resonant, that is, if one of the scattering phase shifts δ is close to π/2. In this regime an anomalous exponent is observed in the temperature dependence of the mobility μ(T). In D = 3, for instance, the mobility is proportional to T^-3/2 rather than to T^-2. The second effect is a giant mass renormalization in the case of a large particle. In this situation, the low-temperature effective mass M* increases up to an exponentially large value, M* exp[c(r/λF)³], where r is the effective radius of the particle, λF the Fermi wavelength and c a non-universal constant of order one.     

Pseudogaps in an incoherent metal

How are the properties of a metal changed by strong inelastic scattering? We investigate this question within the two-dimensional t-J model using extended dynamical mean field theory and a generalized noncrossing approximation. Short-ranged antiferromagnetic fluctuations lead to a strongly incoherent single particle dynamics, large entropy, and resistance. Close to the Mott transition at low hole doping a pseudogap opens, accompanied by a drop in resistivity and an increase in the Hall constant for both lower temperatures T and doping levels. The behavior obtained bears surprising similarity to properties of the cuprates.     

Nonequilibrium transport through a Kondo dot in a magnetic field: perturbation theory and poor man's scaling

We consider electron transport through a quantum dot described by the Kondo model in the regime of large transport voltage V in the presence of a magnetic field B with max((V,B)>T(K). The electric current I and the local magnetization M are found to be universal functions of V/T(K) and B/T(K), where T(K) is the equilibrium Kondo temperature. We present a generalization of the perturbative renormali-zation group to frequency dependent coupling functions, as necessitated by the structure of bare perturbation theory. We calculate I and M within a poor man's scaling approach and find excellent agreement with experiment.     

Long-range crystalline nature of the Skyrmion lattice in MnSi

We report small angle neutron scattering of the Skyrmion lattice in MnSi using an experimental setup that minimizes the effects of demagnetizing fields and double scattering. Under these conditions, the Skyrmion lattice displays resolution-limited Gaussian rocking peaks that correspond to a magnetic correlation length in excess of several hundred micrometers. This is consistent with exceptionally well-defined long-range order. We further establish the existence of higher-order scattering, discriminating parasitic double scattering with Renninger scans. The field and temperature dependence of the higher-order scattering arises from an interference effect. It is characteristic for the long-range crystalline nature of the Skyrmion lattice as shown by simple mean-field calculations.     

Universal dephasing rate due to diluted Kondo impurities

We calculate the dephasing rate due to magnetic impurities in a weakly disordered metal as measured in a weak-localization experiment. If the density nS of magnetic impurities is sufficiently low, the dephasing rate 1/tauphi is a universal function, 1/tauphi=(nS/nu)f(T/TK), where TK is the Kondo temperature and nu is the density of states. We show that inelastic vertex corrections with a typical energy transfer DeltaE are suppressed by powers of 1/(tauphiDeltaE) proportional to nS. Therefore, the dephasing rate can be calculated from the inelastic cross section proportional to pinu ImT-/pinuT/2, where T is the T matrix which is evaluated numerically exactly using the numerical renormalization group.     

Field-dependent thermal transport in the haldane chain compound NENP

We present a study of the magnetic field-dependent thermal transport in the spin S=1 chain material Ni(C(2)H(8)N(2))(2)NO(2)(ClO(4)) (NENP). The measured thermal conductivity is found to be very sensitive to the field-induced changes in the spin excitation spectrum. The magnetic contribution to the total heat conductivity is analyzed in terms of a quasiparticle model, and we obtain a temperature and momentum independent mean free path. This implies that the motion of quasiparticles is effectively three dimensional despite the tiny interchain coupling.     

Transport in almost integrable models: perturbed Heisenberg chains

The heat conductivity kappa(T) of integrable models, like the one-dimensional spin-1/2 nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model, is infinite even at finite temperatures as a consequence of the conservation laws associated with integrability. Small perturbations lead to finite but large transport coefficients which we calculate perturbatively using exact diagonalization and moment expansions. We show that there are two different classes of perturbations. While an interchain coupling of strength J(perpendicular) leads to kappa(T) proportional to 1/J(perpendicular)2 as expected from simple golden-rule arguments, we obtain a much larger kappa(T) proportional to 1/J'4 for a weak next-nearest-neighbor interaction J'. This can be explained by a new approximate conservation law of the J-J' Heisenberg chain.     

Conductivity of a clean one-dimensional wire

We study the low-temperature low-frequency conductivity sigma of an interacting one-dimensional electron system in the presence of a periodic potential. The conductivity is strongly influenced by conservation laws, which, we argue, need to be violated by at least two noncommuting umklapp processes to render sigma finite. The resulting dynamics of the slow modes is studied within a memory matrix approach, and we find an exponential increase as the temperature is lowered, sigma approximately (Deltan)(2)e(T0/(NT)) close to commensurate filling M/N, Deltan = n-M/N<1, and sigma approximately e((T(')(0)/T)(2/3)) elsewhere.