Overscreened Single Channel Kondo Problem

Abstract

We consider the single channel Kondo problem with the Kondo coupling between a spin $S$ impurity and conduction electrons with spin $j$. These problems arise as multicritical points in the parameter spaces of two- and higher-level tunneling systems, and some impurity models of heavy fermion compounds. In contrast to the previous Bethe-anstaz conjectures, it turns out that the dynamics of the spin sector is the same as that of a spin $S$ impurity coupled to $k(j)$ channels of spin $1/2$ electrons with $k(j) = 2j(j+1)(2j+1)/3$. As a result, for $2S < k(j)$, the system shows non-Fermi liquid behavior with the same exponents for the thermodynamic quantities as those of $k(j)$ channel Kondo problem. However, both the finite-size spectrum and the operator content are different due to the presence of the other sectors and can be obtained by conformal field theory techniques.