Orbital ordering and volume collapse in cerium

ORAL

Abstract

Realistic all-orbital many-body calculations are performed for cerium, covering a large volume range. $16$-orbital cerium model Hamiltonians are obtained from the local-density approximation and solved using the fluctuation-exchange approximation. It is found that the thermodynamic behavior of cerium is coupled to orbital-ordering transitions of its $f$ electrons. Different arrangements of $f$ electrons occur for the $\alpha$- and $\gamma$-cerium; moreover, metastable solutions also exist. In addition magnetic and spectral properties are analyzed.

*Work at UC Davis was supported in part by IUT Agreement Nos.~B507147 and B511275 with LLNL, and by NSF-DMR-9985978. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by UC LLNL under Contract No.~W-7405-ENG-48.

Authors

  • G\"{o}khan Esirgen

    • University of Southern California
  • Andrew K. McMahan

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Richard T. Scalettar

    • University of California, Davis