The Valence-Fluctuating Ground State of Plutonium
Abstract
A central issue in material science is to obtain understanding of the electronic correlations that control complex materials. Such electronic correlations frequently arise due to the competition of localized and itinerant electronic degrees of freedom. While the respective limits of well-localized or entirely itinerant ground states are well-understood, the intermediate regime that controls the functional properties of complex materials continues to challenge theoretical understanding. We have used neutron spectroscopy to investigate plutonium, which is a prototypical material at the brink between bonding and non-bonding configurations. Our study reveals that the ground state of plutonium is governed by valence fluctuations, that is, a quantum-mechanical superposition of localized and itinerant electronic configurations as recently predicted by dynamical mean field theory. Our results not only resolve the long-standing controversy between experiment and theory on plutonium's magnetism, but also suggest an improved understanding of the effects of such electronic dichotomy in complex materials.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1508.06926,
title = {The Valence-Fluctuating Ground State of Plutonium},
author = {M. Janoschek and Pinaki Das and B. Chakrabarti and D. L. Abernathy and M. D. Lumsden and J. M. Lawrence and J. D. Thompson and G. H. Lander and J. N. Mitchell and S. Richmond and M. Ramos and F. Trouw and J. -X. Zhu and K. Haule and G. Kotliar and E. D. Bauer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06926},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
29 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, supplementary materials