Kondo destruction and fixed-point annihilation in a Bose-Fermi Kondo model

Abstract: Quantum criticality that goes beyond the Landau framework of order-parameter fluctuations is playing a central role in elucidating the behavior of strange metals. A prominent case appears in Kondo lattice systems, which have been extensively analysed in terms of an effective Bose-Fermi Kondo model. Here, a spin is simultaneously coupled to conduction electron bands and gapless vector bosons that represent magnetic fluctuations. The Bose-Fermi Kondo model features interacting fixed points of Kondo destruction with such properties as dynamical Planckian ($\hbar \omega / k_{\rm B} T$) scaling and loss of quasiparticles. Here we carry out a renormalization-group analysis of the model with spin isotropy and identify pair-wise annihilations of the fixed points as the spectrum of the bosonic bath evolves. Our analysis not only provides an essentially complete understanding of the previous numerical results of an SU(2)-symmetric model, but also reveals a surprising feature of sequential fixed-point annihilation. Our results lay the foundation for the understanding of quantum criticality in spin-isotropic heavy-fermion metals as well as in doped Mott-Hubbard systems.