Decoherence of the Kondo Singlet via a Quantum Point Contact Detector

Abstract

We investigate the effect of the charge state measurement of the Kondo singlet for a quantum dot transistor via a capacitively coupled quantum point contact detector. By employing the variational ansatz for the singlet ground state of the quantum dot combined with the density matrix formulation for the coupled system, we show that the coherent Kondo singlet is destroyed by the phase-sensitive as well as the magnitude-sensitive detection in the transmission/reflection coefficients at the quantum point contact. We argue that the phase-sensitive component of the decoherence rate may explain the anomalous features observed in a recent experiment by Avinun-Kalish {\em et al.} (Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 156801 (2004)). We also discuss the correlations of the shot noise at the quantum point contact detector and the decoherence in the quantum dot.