We measure the band structure of nickel along various high-symmetry lines of the bulk Brillouin zone with angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The Gutzwiller theory for a nine-band Hubbard model whose tight-binding parameters are obtained from non-magnetic density-functional theory resolves most of the long-standing discrepancies between experiment and theory on nickel. Thereby we support the view of itinerant ferromagnetism as induced by atomic correlations.
We investigate the unusual magnetic properties of nearly-critical, weakly-itinerant ferromagnets with general formula UTX, where T=Rh,Co and X=Ge,Si. As a unique feature about these systems, we show that changes in the V_{df} hybridization control their proximity to a ferromagnetic instability, and determine the evolution of: the ground state magnetization, M_0, the Curie Temperature, T_C, the density of states at the Fermi level, N(E_F), the T^2 resistivity coefficient, A, and the specific heat coefficient, gamma. The universal aspect of our findings comes from the dependence on only two parameters: the T_d bandwidth, W_d, and the distance between T_d and U_f band centers, C_{T_d}-C_{U_f}.
Direct coupling between gapless bosons and a Fermi surface results in the destruction of Landau quasiparticles and a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory. Such a non-Fermi liquid phase arises in spin-orbit coupled ferromagnets with spontaneously broken continuous symmetries due to strong coupling between rotational Goldstone modes and itinerant electrons. These systems provide an experimentally accessible context for studying non-Fermi liquid physics. Possible examples include low-density Rashba coupled electron gases, which have a natural tendency towards spontaneous ferromagnetism, or topological insulator surface states with proximity-induced ferromagnetism. Crucially, unlike the related case of a spontaneous nematic distortion of the Fermi surface, for which the non-Fermi liquid regime is expected to be masked by a superconducting dome, we show that the non-Fermi liquid phase in spin-orbit coupled ferromagnets is stable.
We use the Gutzwiller Density Functional Theory to calculate ground-state properties and bandstructures of iron in its body-centered-cubic (bcc) and hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) phases. For a Hubbard interaction $U=9, {rm eV}$ and Hunds-rule coupling $J=0.54, {rm eV}$ we reproduce the lattice parameter, magnetic moment, and bulk modulus of bcc iron. For these parameters, bcc is the ground-state lattice structure at ambient pressure up to a pressure of $p_{rm c}=41, {rm GPa}$ where a transition to the non-magnetic hcp structure is predicted, in qualitative agreement with experiment ($p_{rm c}^{rm exp}=10ldots 15, {rm GPa}$). The calculated bandstructure for bcc iron is in good agreement with ARPES measurements. The agreement improves when we perturbatively include the spin-orbit coupling.
Quasi-two dimensional itinerant fermions in the Anti-Ferro-Magnetic (AFM) quantum-critical region of their phase diagram, such as in the Fe-based superconductors or in some of the heavy-fermion compounds, exhibit a resistivity varying linearly with temperature and a contribution to specific heat or thermopower proportional to $T ln T$. It is shown here that a generic model of itinerant AFM can be canonically transformed such that its critical fluctuations around the AFM-vector $Q$ can be obtained from the fluctuations in the long wave-length limit of a dissipative quantum XY model. The fluctuations of the dissipative quantum XY model in 2D have been evaluated recently and in a large regime of parameters, they are determined, not by renormalized spin-fluctuations but by topological excitations. In this regime, the fluctuations are separable in their spatial and temporal dependence and have a dynamical critical exponent $z =infty.$ The time dependence gives $omega/T$-scaling at criticality. The observed resistivity and entropy then follow directly. Several predictions to test the theory are also given.
The J1-J2 model on a square lattice exhibits a rich variety of different forms of magnetic order that depend sensitively on the ratio of exchange constants J2/J1. We use bulk magnetometry and polarized neutron scattering to determine J1 and J2 unambiguously for two materials in a new family of vanadium phosphates, Pb2VO(PO4)2 and SrZnVO(PO4)2, and we find that they have ferromagnetic J1. The ordered moment in the collinear antiferromagnetic ground state is reduced, and the diffuse magnetic scattering is enhanced, as the predicted bond-nematic region of the phase diagram is approached.