Multichannel topological Kondo models and their low-temperature conductances

In the multichannel Kondo effect, overscreening of a magnetic impurity by conduction electrons leads to a frustrated exotic ground state. It has been proposed that multichannel topological Kondo (MCTK) model involving topological Cooper pair boxes with M <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:math> Majorana modes [SO( M <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:math> ) “spin”] and N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> spinless electron channels exhibits an exotic intermediate coupling fixed point. This intermediate fixed point has been analyzed through large- N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> perturbative calculations, which gives a zero-temperature conductance decaying as 1/N^2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mi>/</mml:mi> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> in the large- N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> limit. However, the conductance at this intermediate fixed point has not been calculated for generic N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> . Using representation theory, we verify the existence of this intermediate-coupling fixed point and find the strong-coupling effective Hamiltonian for the case M=4 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Using conformal field theory techniques for SO( M <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:math> ), we generalize the notion of overscreening and conclude that the MCTK model is an overscreened Kondo model. We find the fixed-point finite-size energy spectrum and the leading irrelevant operator (LIO). We express the fixed-point conductance in terms of the modular S-matrix of SO( M <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:math> ) for general N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> , confirming the previous large- N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> result. We describe the finite-temperature corrections to the conductance by the LIO and find that they are qualitatively different for the cases N=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and N≥2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mo>≥</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> due to the different fusion outcomes with the current operator. We also compare the multichannel topological Kondo model to the topological symplectic Kondo model.