On the pressure-temperature phase diagram of intermediate valence compounds

Abstract

The pressure-temperature (P, T) phase diagram of intermediate valence compounds has been calculated on the basis of the periodic Anderson model which was extended to include the interaction of 4f electrons with longitudinal optical phonons. It is shown that the positive slope (dP/dT>0) of the phase boundary between the insulating and the mixed valence phase as observed experimentally in Sm S and many other systems is determined by the behaviour of the electronic density of states of the interacting system as function ofP. Moreover, the observed anomalous thermal contraction in the insulating phase near the phase boundary and the anomalously large thermal expansion in the metallic phase are well described by numerical results for the extended periodic Anderson model.