Work

Heavy-fermion hybridization waves from Dirac spinons near a Kondo-breakdown quantum phase transition

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Motivated by the recent observation of spatially modulated screening in different paramagnetic heavy-fermion materials, we propose a theoretical mechanism for the emergence of such hybridization waves in frustrated Kondo lattices with no magnetic order. By applying both a parton mean-field theory and a perturbative calculation to a minimal Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model, we demonstrate that a heavy Fermi liquid can naturally develop hybridization waves when it approaches a quantum phase transition where Kondo screening breaks down and the local magnetic moments form a Dirac spin liquid. We relate the strength of this mechanism to a kinematic condition on the electronic and spinon band structures and show that the spatial periodicity of the ensuing hybridization wave is controlled by momenta $\vec{Q}$ that connect the Dirac nodes in the spinon dispersion to low-energy portions of the electronic band structure.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220980951
Cites: 4
Cited by:
Related to: 10