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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 206401 (2009) [4 pages]

Quantum Criticality Out of Equilibrium: Steady State in a Magnetic Single-Electron Transistor

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Stefan Kirchner1,2 and Qimiao Si1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77005, USA
2Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany

Received 7 June 2008; published 9 November 2009

Quantum critical systems out of equilibrium are of extensive interest, but are difficult to study theoretically. We consider here the steady-state limit of a single-electron transistor with ferromagnetic leads. In equilibrium (i.e., bias voltage V=0), this system features a continuous quantum phase transition with a critical destruction of the Kondo effect. We construct an exact quantum Boltzmann treatment in a dynamical large-N limit, and determine the universal scaling functions of both the nonlinear conductance and fluctuation-dissipation ratios. We also elucidate the decoherence properties as encoded in the local spin response.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.206401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.206401
PACS:
71.10.Hf, 05.70.Jk, 05.70.Ln, 75.20.Hr