Kondo Effect in Dense Matter

Abstract

The Kondo effect is a phenomenon that indicates the enhancement of the electric resistance at low temperature in metal including impurity atoms with finite spins. This is caused by combination of three conditions: (i) existence of degenerate state (e.g. Fermi surface), (ii) quantum effect by loop integral and (ii) non-Abelian interaction between the itinerant light fermions (electrons) and the heavy impurity particle (atom). Interestingly, it has been pointed out that the Kondo effect can occur in nuclear matter as well as in quark matter, when heavy (charm and bottom) hadrons or quarks exist as impurity particles in the medium. The non-Abelian interaction is provided not only by spin-exchange interaction with SU(2) spin symmetry but also by isospin-exchange interaction with SU(2) isospin symmetry and by color-exchange interaction with SU(3) color symmetry. The Kondo effect in those systems is important because it can change the properties of the medium. The Kondo effect should be investigated in future experiments at accelerator facilities.