Anomalous curie response of impurities in quantum-critical spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets

We consider a magnetic impurity in two different S=1/2 Heisenberg bilayer antiferromagnets at their respective critical interlayer couplings separating Néel and disordered ground states. We calculate the impurity susceptibility using a quantum Monte Carlo method. With intralayer couplings in only one of the layers (Kondo lattice), we observe an anomalous Curie constant C*, as predicted on the basis of field-theoretical work S. Sachdev, Science 286, 2479 (1999)10.1126/science.286.5449.2479]. The value C* = 0.262 +/- 0.002 is larger than the normal Curie constant C=S(S+1)/3. Our low-temperature results for a symmetric bilayer are consistent with a universal C*.