Emergent Chiral Metal near a Kondo Breakdown Quantum Phase Transition

Area of Science:

• Condensed matter physics
• Quantum materials
• Topological phases of matter

Background:

• The Kondo effect describes the interaction between magnetic impurities and conduction electrons in metals.
• Destruction of the Kondo effect can lead to exotic non-Fermi-liquid phases.
• Topological phases exhibit unique electronic properties and excitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the emergence of a chiral heavy-fermion metal.
• Explore the role of π-flux in a fractionalized Fermi liquid.
• Identify novel phases near the Kondo-breakdown transition.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a parton mean-field theory.
• Describing the transition between heavy Fermi liquid and U(1) fractionalized Fermi liquid.
• Deriving a Landau-type theory for emergent phases.

Main Results:

• A novel intermediate phase emerges near the Kondo-breakdown transition.
• This phase exhibits spontaneous breaking of translation and time-reversal symmetries.
• The emergent phase is identified as an orbital antiferromagnet with a π-flux spin liquid.

Conclusions:

• A chiral heavy-fermion metal emerges from a fractionalized Fermi liquid with π-flux.
• Orbital antiferromagnetism is a generic consequence of π-flux spin liquids.
• The findings have relevance to ongoing experimental studies in quantum materials.