Ralf Bulla

Numerical renormalization group method for quantum impurity systems

In the early 1970s, Wilson developed the concept of a fully nonperturbative renormalization group transformation. When applied to the Kondo problem, this numerical renormalization group (NRG) method gave for the first time the full crossover from the high-temperature phase of a free spin to the low-temperature phase of a completely screened spin. The NRG method was later generalized to a variety of quantum impurity problems. The purpose of this review is to give a brief introduction to the NRG method, including some guidelines for calculating physical quantities, and to survey the development of the NRG method and its various applications over the last 30 years. These applications include variants of the original Kondo problem such as the non-Fermi-liquid behavior in the two-channel Kondo model, dissipative quantum systems such as the spin-boson model, and lattice systems in the framework of the dynamical mean-field theory.

Zero temperature metal-insulator transition in the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model.

The zero temperature transition from a paramagnetic metal to a paramagnetic insulator is investigated in the Dynamical Mean Field Theory for the Hubbard model. The self-energy of the effective impurity Anderson model (on which the Hubbard model is mapped) is calculated using Wilsons Numerical Renormalization Group method. Results for quasiparticle weight, spectral function and self-energy are discussed for Bethe and hypercubic lattice. In both cases, the metal-insulator transition is found to occur via the vanishing of a quasiparticle resonance which appears to be isolated from the Hubbard bands.

Finite-temperature numerical renormalization group study of the Mott transition

Wilson’s numerical renormalization group method for the calculation of dynamic properties of impurity models is generalized to investigate the effective impurity model of the dynamical mean-field theory at finite temperatures. We calculate the spectral function and self-energy for the Hubbard model on a Bethe lattice with infinite coordination number directly on the real-frequency axis and investigate the phase diagram for the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition. While for T,Tc’0.02W (W: bandwidth! we find hysteresis with first-order transitions both at Uc1 ~defining the insulator to metal transition! and at Uc2 ~defining the metal to insulator transition! ,a tT.Tc there is a smooth crossover from metalliclike to insulatinglike solutions.

Numerical renormalization group calculations for the self-energy of the impurity Anderson model

We present a new method for calculating directly the one-particle self-energy of an impurity Anderson model with Wilsons numerical renormalization group method by writing this quantity as the ratio of two correlation functions. This way of calculating turns out to be considerably more reliable and accurate than that via the impurity Greens function alone. We give results for the self-energy for the case of a constant coupling between the impurity and the conduction band and the effective arising in the dynamical mean-field theory of the Hubbard model. The implications of the problem of the metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model are also discussed.

Numerical renormalization group for bosonic systems and application to the sub-ohmic spin-boson model.

We describe the generalization of Wilsons numerical renormalization group method to quantum impurity models with a bosonic bath, providing a general nonperturbative approach to bosonic impurity models which can access exponentially small energies and temperatures. As an application, we consider the spin-boson model, describing a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, J(omega) proportional to omega(s). We find clear evidence for a line of continuous quantum phase transitions for sub-Ohmic bath exponents 0<s<1; the line terminates in the well-known Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at s=1. Contact is made with results from perturbative renormalization group, and various other applications are outlined.

Numerical Renormalization Group for Quantum Impurities in a Bosonic Bath

We present a detailed description of the recently proposed numerical renormalization group method for models of quantum impurities coupled to a bosonic bath. Specifically, the method is applied to the spin-boson model, both in the Ohmic and sub-Ohmic cases. We present various results for static as well as dynamic quantities and discuss details of the numerical implementation, e.g., the discretization of a bosonic bath with arbitrary continuous spectral density, the suitable choice of a finite basis in the bosonic Hilbert space, and questions of convergence with respect to truncation parameters. The method is shown to provide high-accuracy data over the whole range of model parameters and temperatures, which are in agreement with exact results and other numerical data from the literature.

Quantum Phase Transitions in the Sub-Ohmic Spin-Boson Model: Failure of the Quantum-Classical Mapping

The effective theories for many quantum phase transitions can be mapped onto those of classical transitions. Here we show that the naive mapping fails for the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model which describes a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, J(omega) proportional, variantomega(s). Using an epsilon expansion we prove that this model has a quantum transition controlled by an interacting fixed point at small s, and support this by numerical calculations. In contrast, the corresponding classical long-range Ising model is known to display mean-field transition behavior for 0 < s < 1/2, controlled by a noninteracting fixed point. The failure of the quantum-classical mapping is argued to arise from the long-ranged interaction in imaginary time in the quantum model.

Quantum phase transitions in models of coupled magnetic impurities

We discuss models of interacting magnetic impurities coupled to a metallic host, which show one or more boundary quantum phase transitions where the ground-state spin changes as a function of the interimpurity couplings. The simplest example is realized by two spin-

Gap formation and soft phonon mode in the Holstein model.

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Equilibrium and nonequilibrium dynamics of the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model.

Kondo impurities coupled to a single orbital of the host. We investigate the phase diagram and crossover behavior of this model and present numerical renormalization-group results together with general arguments showing that the singlet-doublet quantum phase transition is either of first order or of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type, depending on the symmetry of the Kondo couplings. Thus we find an exponentially small energy scale within the Kondo regime, and a two-stage Kondo effect, in a single-channel situation. Connections to other models and possible applications are discussed.