Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior in U and Ce Alloys: Criticality, Disorder, Dissipation, and Griffiths-McCoy singularities

Abstract

In this paper we provide the theoretical basis for the problem of Griffiths-McCoy singularities close to the quantum critical point for magnetic ordering in U and Ce intermetallics. We show that the competition between Kondo effect and RKKY interaction can be expressed in Hamiltonian form and the dilution effect due to alloying leads to a quantum percolation problem driven by the number of magnetically compensated moments. We argue that the exhaustion paradox proposed by Nozi\`eres is explained when the RKKY interaction is taken into account. We revisited the one impurity and two impurity Kondo problem and showed that in the presence of particle-hole symmetry breaking operators the system flows to a line of fixed points characterized by coherent motion of the spins. This leads to a {\it cluster Kondo effect}. We calculate explicitly from the microscopic Hamiltonian the parameters which appear in all the response functions. We show that there is a maximum number $N_c$ of spins in the clusters such that above this number tunneling ceases to occur. These effects lead to a distribution of cluster Kondo temperatures which vanishes for finite clusters and therefore leads to strong magnetic response. From these results we propose a {\it dissipative quantum droplet model} which describes the critical behavior of metallic magnetic systems. This model predicts that in the paramagnetic phase there is a crossover temperature $T^*$ above which Griffiths-McCoy like singularities with power law behavior. Below $T^*$, however, a new regime dominated by dissipation occurs with stronger divergences. We estimate that $T^*$ is exponentially small with $N_c$.