Quantum phase transition from an antiferromagnet to a spin liquid in a metal

Abstract

We study quantum phase transitions from easy-plane antiferromagnetic metals to paramagnetic metals in Kondo-Heisenberg lattice systems. If the paramagnetic metal is a fractionalized Fermi liquid then the universal critical properties of the phase transition are unaffected for a weak Kondo coupling even when the Fermi surface intersects the magnetic zone boundary. This is in striking contrast to the conventional theory of phase transitions between paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic metals where any Kondo coupling is strongly relevant, and leads to a Landau-damped “Hertz-Millis” theory. The electron quasiparticle remains well defined in the quantum critical regime and the critical spin fluctuations only contribute subleading corrections to the various properties of conduction electrons.