Magnetic impurity coupled to a quantum spin chain: A quantum Monte Carlo study

We study by Monte Carlo simulations a magnetic impurity coupled antiferromagnetically to a one-dimensional quantum spin model. The impurity susceptibility and the spin-correlation function are calculated. By defining and evaluating an energy scale from the inverse of the impurity susceptibility at zero temperature, we find a scaling relation for the impurity susceptibility in agreement with the prediction of the conformal field theory. We analyze the problem by mapping the spin model onto the resonant-level model, and interpret the energy scale as the resonant-level width. The spin-correlation function between the impurity spin and the spins in the chain is found to extend over long range at low temperatures. We show that the system can be considered as a model of an insulator with heavy-fermion behavior.