Friedel oscillations and the Kondo screening cloud
Abstract
We show that the long distance charge density oscillations in a metal induced by a weakly coupled spin-1/2 magnetic impurity exhibiting the Kondo effect are given, at zero temperature, by a universal function F(r/xiK) where r is the distance from the impurity and xiK, the Kondo screening cloud size =vF/TK, where vF is the Fermi velocity and TK is the Kondo temperature. F is given by a Fourier-like transform of the T-matrix. Analytic expressions for F(r/xiK) are derived in both limits r much less than xiK and r much greater than xiK and F is calculated for all r/xiK using numerical methods.
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