Scaling and Enhanced Symmetry at the Quantum Critical Point of the Sub-Ohmic Bose-Fermi Kondo Model

Abstract

We consider the finite temperature scaling properties of a Kondo-destroying quantum critical point in the Ising-anisotropic Bose-Fermi Kondo model (BFKM). A cluster-updating Monte Carlo approach is used, in order to reliably access a wide temperature range. The scaling function for the two-point spin correlator is found to have the form dictated by a boundary conformal field theory, even though the underlying Hamiltonian lacks conformal invariance. Similar conclusions are reached for all multi-point correlators of the spin-isotropic BFKM in a dynamical large-N limit. Our results suggest that the quantum critical local properties of the sub-ohmic BFKM are those of an underlying boundary conformal field theory.