Negative-U Anisotropic Charge Kondo Effect in a Triple Quantum Dot

We predict a new type of the negative-$U$ Anderson impurity formed in a triple quantum dot. The two dots of the system behave as a negative-$U$ impurity preferring zero or double electron occupancy rather than single occupancy, and the third dot stabilizes the attractive interaction of $U < 0$ via Coulomb repulsion. Using a bosonization method, we find that the system has the two different phases of massive or vanishing charge fluctuations between the two occupancies at low temperature, which are equivalent with the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases of the anisotropic Kondo model, respectively. The phase transition is experimentally accessible and identifiable by electron conductance, offering the possibility of experimentally exploring the anisotropic Kondo model.