Universal Behavior in Heavy Electron Materials

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a universal scaling law describing the formation of the Kondo Fermi liquid in heavy electron materials, validated by multiple experiments and consistent with microscopic calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, universal scaling expression for the Kondo Fermi liquid state in heavy electron materials, supported by experimental verification and theoretical agreement.

Findings

Scaling expression accurately describes Kondo Fermi liquid formation

Four experimental probes confirm the scaling behavior

Good agreement with microscopic hybridization calculations in CeIrIn5

Abstract

We present our finding that an especially simple scaling expression describes the formation of a new state of quantum matter, the Kondo Fermi liquid (KL) in heavy electron materials. Emerging at $T^*$ as a result of the collective coherent hybridization of localized f electrons and conduction electrons, the KL possesses a non-Landau density of states varying as $(1-T/T^*)^{3/2}[1+\ln(T^*/T)]$. We show that four independent experimental probes verify this scaling behavior and that for CeIrIn$_5$ the KL state density is in excellent agreement with the recent microscopic calculations of hybridization in this material by Shim, Haule, and Kotliar.