Nature of non-magnetic strongly-correlated state in δ-plutonium

¹ Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radbound University of Nijmegen NL-6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands
² Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Hamburg - 20355 Hamburg, Germany
³ Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Department of Electronic Structures - Ke Karlovu 5, 12116 Prague 2, Czech Republic
⁴ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe, Germany
⁵ Institute of Physics, ASCR - Prague, Czech Republic

Received: 7 December 2005
Accepted: 1 March 2006

Abstract

Ab initio relativistic dynamical mean-field theory is applied to resolve the long-standing controversy between theory and experiment in the “simple” face-centered cubic phase of plutonium called δ-Pu. In agreement with experiment, neither static nor dynamical magnetic moments are predicted. In addition, the quasiparticle density of states reproduces not only the peak close to the Fermi level, which explains the large coefficient of electronic specific heat, but also main 5f features observed in photoelectron spectroscopy.