Large-N Approach to the Two-Channel Kondo Lattice

Abstract

This paper studies the two-channel Kondo lattice in the large-N limit at half-filling. In this model, the continuous channel-symmetry is spontaneously broken, forming a channel ferromagnet in which one conduction channel forms a Kondo insulator, while the other remains conducting. The paper discusses how this ground-state can be understood using the concept of "order fractionalization", in which the channel magnetization breaks up into an emergent spinor order parameter. By integrating out the fermions we derive an effective action that describes this symmetry breaking and its emergent collective modes. A remarkable observation is that topological defects in the order parameter carry a U(1) flux, manifested in the Aharonov-Bohm phase picked by electrons that orbit the defect. By studying the effective action, we argue that the phase diagram contains a non-magnetic transition between a large and a small Fermi surface.