Kondo Temperature for the Two-Channel Kondo Models of Tunneling Centers

A two-channel Kondo (2CK) non-Fermi liquid state in a metal resulting from the interaction between electrons and structural defects modeled by double-well potentials (DWP) is revisited. Account only of the two lowest states in DWP is known to lead to rather low Kondo temperature, T(K). We prove that the contribution of higher excited states reduces T(K), if all of the intermediate states are taken into account. Prefactor in T(K) is shown to be determined by the spacing between the second and the third levels epsilon(3) in DWP rather than by the electron Fermi energy epsilon(F). Since epsilon(3)<<epsilon(F) there is no microscopic model of movable defects which may justify 2CK phenomenology.