Spin Fluctuation Theory Of Itinerant Electron Magnetism

This volume shows how collective magnetic excitations determine most of the magnetic properties of itinerant electron magnets. Previous theories were mainly restricted to the Curie-Weiss law temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibilities. Based on the spin amplitude conservation idea including the zero-point fluctuation amplitude, this book shows that the entire temperature and magnetic field dependence of magnetization curves, even in the ground state, is determined by the effect of spin fluctuations. It also shows that the theoretical consequences are largely in agreement with many experimental observations. The readers will therefore gain a new comprehensive perspective of their unified understanding of itinerant electron magnetism.

A summary of recent developments in theoretical and experimental studies of fluctuation effects in itinerant electron magnets, focusing on novel physical phenomena: soft-mode spin fluctuations and zero-point effects, strong spin anharmonicity, magnetic frustrations in metals, fluctuation effects in Invar alloys and low-dimensional systems. All of these may be important for novel high-technology applications.

This book presents a theoretical framework for magnetism in ferromagnetic metals and alloys at finite temperatures. The objective of the book is twofold. First, it gives a detailed presentation of the dynamic spin-fluctuation theory that takes into account both local and long-wave spin fluctuations with any frequency. The authors provide a detailed explanation of the fundamental role of quantum spin fluctuations in the mechanism of metallic magnetism and illustrate the theory with concrete examples. The second objective of the book is to give an accurate and self-contained presentation of many-body techniques such as the functional integral method and Green's functions, via a number of worked examples. These computational methods are of great use to solid state physicists working in a range of specialties. The book is intended primarily for researchers, but can also be used as textbook. The introductory chapters offer clear and complete derivations of the fundamentals, which makes the presentation self-contained. The main text is followed by a number of well-organized appendices that contain a detailed presentation of the necessary many-body techniques and computational methods. The book also includes a list of symbols and detailed index. This volume will be of interest to a wide range of physicists interested in magnetism and solid state physics in general, both theoreticians and experimentalists.

This volume shows how collective magnetic excitations determine most of the magnetic properties of itinerant electron magnets. Previous theories were mainly restricted to the Curie-Weiss law temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibilities. Based on the spin amplitude conservation idea including the zero-point fluctuation amplitude, this book shows that the entire temperature and magnetic field dependence of magnetization curves, even in the ground state, is determined by the effect of spin fluctuations. It also shows that the theoretical consequences are largely in agreement with many experimental observations. The readers will therefore gain a new comprehensive perspective of their unified understanding of itinerant electron magnetism.

Ferromagnetism of metallic systems, especially those including transition metals, has been a controversial subject of modern science for a long time. This controversy sterns from the apparent dual character of the d-electrons responsible for magnetism in transition metals, i.e., they are itinerant elec trons described by band theory in their ground state, while at finite tem peratures they show various properties that have long been attributed to a system consisting of local magnetic moments. The most familiar example of these properties is the Curie-Weiss law of magnetic susceptibility obeyed by almost all ferromagnets above their Curie temperatures. At first the problem seemed to be centered around whether the d-elec trons themselves are localized or itinerant. This question was settled in the 1950s and early 1960s by various experimental investigations, in particular by observations of d-electron Fermi surfaces in ferromagnetic transition metals. These observations are generally consistent with the results of band calculations. Theoretical investigations since then have concentrated on explaining this dual character of d-electron systems, taking account of the effects of electron-electron correlations in the itinerant electron model. The problem in physical terms is to study the spin density fluctuati·ons, which are ne glected in the mean-field or one-electron theory, and their influence on the physical properties.

This book, in the broadest sense, is an application of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics to the field of magnetism. Under certain well described conditions, an immensely large number of electrons moving in the solid will collectively produce permanent magnetism. Permanent magnets are of fundamental interest, and magnetic materials are of great practical importance as they provide a large field of technological applications. The physical details describing the many electron problem of magnetism are presented in this book on the basis of the density functional approximation. The emphasis is on realistic magnets, for which the equations describing properties of the many electron problem can only be solved by using computers. The significant recent and continuing improvements are, to a very large extent, responsible for the progress in this field. Along with an introduction to the density functional theory, the book describes representative computational methods and detailed formulas for physical properties of magnets which include among other things the computation of magnetic ordering temperatures, the giant magneto-resistance, magneto-optical effects, weak ferromagnetism, the anomalous Hall and Nernst effects, and novel quasiparticles, such as Weyl fermions and magnetic skyrmions.