Kondo effect driven by chirality imbalance

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism of the Kondo effect driven by a chirality imbalance (or chiral chemical potential) of relativistic light fermions. This effect is realized by the mixing between a right- or left-handed fermion and a heavy impurity in the chirality imbalanced matter even at zero density. This is different from the usual Kondo effect induced by finite density. We derive the Kondo effect from both a perturbative calculation and a mean-field approach. We also discuss the temperature dependence of the Kondo effect. The Kondo effect at nonzero chiral chemical potential can be tested by future lattice simulations.