Competing antiferromagnetic phases of the under-screened Anderson lattice model (INVITED)

Abstract

We investigate the magnetic phases of the Under-screened Anderson Lattice Model (UALM) for nearly half-filled 5f bands and find a competition between two distinct magnetic phases. The version of the UALM that we consider consists of two correlated 5f bands that, in the paramagnetic state, hybridize with a single conduction band. At the Néel temperature, the paramagnetic state undergoes a second-order transition to antiferromagnetically ordered states, in which the Néel order parameter induces a mixing between the states with different 5f characters. As pressure is applied, there is a line of first-order transitions that separates two Néel phases. Furthermore, as the pressure is increased, the Néel temperature decreases as if the system is being driven towards a quantum critical point. However, the nature of the paramagnetic instability changes from second-order to first-order before the Neel temperature reaches absolute zero.