The valence-fluctuating ground state of plutonium

Janoschek, Marc; Das, Pinaki; Chakrabarti, Bismayan; Abernathy, Douglas L.; Lumsden, Mark D.; Lawrence, John M.; Thompson, Joe D.; Lander, Gerard H.; Mitchell, Jeremy N.; Richmond, Scott; Ramos, Mike; Trouw, Frans; Zhu, Jian -Xin; Haule, Kristjan; Kotliar, Gabriel; Bauer, Eric D.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500188

Title: The valence-fluctuating ground state of plutonium

Journal Article · Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500188· OSTI ID:1236683

Janoschek, Marc ^[1]; Das, Pinaki ^[1]; Chakrabarti, Bismayan ^[2]; Abernathy, Douglas L. ^[3]; Lumsden, Mark D. ^[3]; Lawrence, John M. ^[1]; Thompson, Joe D. ^[1]; Lander, Gerard H. ^[4]; Mitchell, Jeremy N. ^[1]; Richmond, Scott ^[1]; Ramos, Mike ^[1]; Trouw, Frans ^[1]; Zhu, Jian -Xin ^[1]; Haule, Kristjan ^[2]; Kotliar, Gabriel ^[2]; Bauer, Eric D. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Institute for Transuranium Elements, Karlsruhe (Germany)

A central issue in material science is to obtain understanding of the electronic correlations that control complex materials. Such electronic correlations frequently arise because of the competition of localized and itinerant electronic degrees of freedom. Although 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 nonbonding configurations. In addition, 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.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1236683

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-15-20256

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Vol. 1, Issue 6; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 78 works

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
plutonium
valence fluctuations
electronic ground state
strongly correlated electron physics
material science
Kondo physics
dynamical mean field theory
neutron spectroscopy

Title: The valence-fluctuating ground state of plutonium

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