Emergence of fermionic finite-temperature critical point in a Kondo lattice

Abstract

The underlying Dirac point is central to the profound physics manifested in a wide class of materials. However, it is often difficult to drive a system with Dirac points across the massless fermionic critical point. Here by exploiting screening of local moments under spin-orbit interactions in a Kondo lattice, we show that below the Kondo temperature, the Kondo lattice undergoes a topological transition from a strong topological insulator to a weak topological insulator at a finite temperature $T_D$. At $T_D$, massless Dirac points emerge and the Kondo lattice becomes a Dirac semimetal. Our analysis indicates that the emergent relativistic symmetry dictates non-trivial thermal responses over large parameter and temperature regimes. In particular, it yields critical scaling behaviors both in magnetic and transport responses near $T_D$.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Variational principle for quantum impurity systems in and out of equilibrium: application to Kondo problems
• Enhanced quantum oscillations in Kondo insulators
• Magnetic phases and unusual topological electronic structures of Weyl semimetals in strong interaction limit
• ${\mathcal{Z}}_2$ classification for a novel antiferromagnetic topological insulating phase in three-dimensional topological Kondo insulator
• Two-dimensional Paired Topological Superfluids of Rydberg Fermi Gases
• Scaling of the chiral magnetic effect in quantum diffusive Weyl semimetals
• Quantum oscillations of Kondo screening phases in strong magnetic fields
• Manifestation of chiral magnetic current in Floquet-Weyl semimetals