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Spatiotemporal buildup of the Kondo screening cloud
ISSN
1098-0121
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.88.094306
Abstract
We investigate how the Kondo screening cloud builds up as a function of space and time. Starting from an impurity spin decoupled from the conduction band, the Kondo coupling is switched on at time t = 0. We work at the Toulouse point where one can obtain exact analytical results for the ensuing spin dynamics at both zero and nonzero temperature T. For t > 0 the Kondo screening cloud starts building up in the wake of the impurity spin being transported to infinity. In this buildup process the impurity spin-conduction band spin susceptibility shows a sharp light cone due to causality, while the corresponding correlation function has a tail outside the light cone. At T = 0 this tail has a power-law decay as a function of distance from the impurity, which we interpret as due to initial entanglement in the Fermi sea.