We address the fundamental question how the spatial Kondo correlations are building up in time assuming an initially decoupled impurity spin $\vec{S}_{\rm imp}$. We investigate the time-dependent spin-correlation function $\chi(\vec{r},t) = \langle \vec{S}_\mathrm{imp} \vec{s}(\vec{r}) \rangle (t)$ in the Kondo model with antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic couplings where $ \vec{s}(\vec{r})$ denotes the spin density of the conduction electrons after switching on the Kondo coupling at time $t=0$. We present data obtained from a time-dependent numerical renormalisation group (TD-NRG) calculation. We gauge the accuracy of our two-band NRG by the spatial sum-rules of the equilibrium correlation functions and the reproduction of the analytically exactly known spin-correlation function of the decoupled Fermi sea. We find a remarkable building up of Kondo-correlation outside of the light cone defined by the Fermi velocity of the host metal. By employing a perturbative approach exact in second-order of the Kondo coupling, we connect these surprising correlations to the intrinsic spin-density entanglement of the Fermi sea. The thermal wave length supplies a cutoff scale at finite temperatures beyond which correlations are exponentially suppressed. We present data for the frequency dependent retarded spin-spin susceptibility and use the results to calculate the real-time response of a weak perturbation in linear response: within the spatial resolution no response outside of the light cone is found

By means of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), we have investigated the adsorption of single Au atoms on a PTCDA monolayer physisorbed on the Au(111) surface. A chemical reaction between the Au atom and the PTCDA molecule leads to the formation of a radical that has an unpaired electron in its highest occupied orbital. This orbital is a π orbital that extends over the whole Au-PTCDA complex. Because of the large Coulomb repulsion in this orbital, the unpaired electron generates a local moment when the molecule is adsorbed on the Au(111) surface. We demonstrate the formation of the radical and the existence of the local moment after adsorption by observing a zero-bias differential conductance peak that originates from the Kondo effect. By temperature dependent measurements of the zero-bias differential conductance, we determine the Kondo temperature to be T K = (38 ± 8) K. For the theoretical description of the properties of the Au-PTCDA complex we use a hierarchy of methods, ranging from density functional theory (DFT) including a van der Waals correction to many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and the numerical renormalization group (NRG) approach. Regarding the high-energy orbital spectrum, we obtain an excellent agreement with experiments by both spin-polarized DFT/MBPT and NRG. Moreover, the NRG provides an accurate description of the low-energy excitation spectrum of the spin degree of freedom, predicting a Kondo temperature very close to the experimental value. This is achieved by a detailed analysis of the universality of various definitions of T K and by taking into account the full energy dependence of the coupling function between the molecule-metal complex and the metallic substrate.

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We show that the RKKY interaction in the two-impurity Anderson model comprise two contributions: a ferromagnetic part stemming from the symmetrized hybridization functions and an anti-ferromagnetic part. We demonstrate that this anti-ferromagnetic contribution can also be generated by an effective local tunneling term between the two impurities. This tunneling can be analytically calculated for particle-hole symmetric impurities. Replacing the full hybridization functions by the symmetric part and this tunneling term leads to the identical low-temperature fixed point spectrum in the numerical renormalization group. Compensating this tunneling term is used to restore the Varma-Jones quantum critical point between a strong coupling phase and a local singlet phase even in the absence of particle-hole symmetry in the hybridization functions. We analytically investigate the spatial frequencies of the effective tunneling term based on the combination of the band dispersion and the shape of the Fermi surface. Numerical renormalization group calculations provide a comparison of the distance dependent tunneling term and the local spin-spin correlation function. Derivations between the spatial dependency of the full spin-spin correlation function and the textbook RKKY interaction are reported.