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A unified theory of ferromagnetic quantum phase transitions in heavy fermion metals

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Abstract

Motivated by the recent discovery of a continuous ferromagnetic quantum phase transition in CeRh6Ge4 and its distinction from other U-based heavy fermion metals such as UGe2, we develop a unified explanation of their different ground state properties based on an anisotropic ferromagnetic Kondo-Heisenberg model. We employ an improved large-N Schwinger boson approach and predict a full phase diagram containing both a continuous ferromagnetic quantum phase transition for large magnetic anisotropy and first-order transitions for relatively small anisotropy. Our calculations reveal three different ferromagnetic phases including a half-metallic spin selective Kondo insulator with a constant magnetization. The Fermi surface topologies are found to change abruptly between different phases, consistent with that observed in UGe2. At finite temperatures, we predict the development of Kondo hybridization well above the ferromagnetic long-range order and its relocalization near the phase transition, in good agreement with band measurements in CeRh6Ge4. Our results highlight the importance of magnetic anisotropy and provide a unified theory for understanding the ferromagnetic quantum phase transitions in heavy fermion metals.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jiangfan Wang & Yi-Feng Yang

  2. School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yi-Feng Yang

  3. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, 523808, China

    Yi-Feng Yang

Authors
  1. Jiangfan Wang
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  2. Yi-Feng Yang
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Correspondence to Yi-Feng Yang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0303103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12174429, and 11974397), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB33010100).

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Wang, J., Yang, YF. A unified theory of ferromagnetic quantum phase transitions in heavy fermion metals. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 65, 257211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-022-1879-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-022-1879-2

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