Theory of antiferromagnetic correlations and neutron-scattering cross section in heavy-fermion metals

Abstract

We show that antiferromagnetic correlations with frequencies scaling as the inverse-mass enhancement are universal features of coherent heavy fermions. The associated neutron cross-section peaks may be either quasielastic or inelastic. Spin-orbit and crystal-field interactions yield zone-center peaks at comparable frequencies. This experimentally observed behavior is derived from a 1/N expansion. Because these correlations are not ‘‘soft’’ and are general features of hybridized band structure, they do not necessarily elucidate the superconducting mechanism.