We consider the effects of impurities on the enigmatic hidden order (HO) state of the heavy-fermion material URu2Si2. In particular, we focus on local effects of Rh impurities as a tool to probe the suppression of the HO state. To study local properties we introduce a lattice free energy, where the time invariant HO order parameter "psi" and local antiferromagnetic (AFM) order parameter M are competing orders. Near each Rh atom the HO order parameter is suppressed, creating a hole in which local AFM order emerges as a result of competition. These local holes are created in the fabric of the HO state like in a Swiss cheese and "filled" with droplets of AFM order. We compare our analysis with recent NMR results on URu2Si2 doped with Rh and find good agreement with the data.
@article{arxiv.1012.3200,
title = {Local suppression of the hidden order phase by impurities in URu2Si2},
author = {Maria E. Pezzoli and Matthias J. Graf and Kristjan Haule and Gabriel Kotliar and Alexander V. Balatsky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.3200},
year = {2013}
}