Evidence for a common physical description of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in f-electron systems

Abstract

The non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior observed in the low temperature specific heat $C(T)$ and magnetic susceptibility $\chi (T)$ of f-electron systems is analyzed within the context of a recently developed theory based on Griffiths singularities. Measurements of $C(T)$ and $\chi (T)$ in the systems $T{h}_{1-x}{U}_{x}P{d}_{2}A{l}_3$, $Y_{1-x}{U}_{x}P{d}_3$, and $UC{u}_{5-x}{M}_x$ (M = Pd, Pt) are found to be consistent with $C(T)/T\propto \chi (T)\propto T^{-1+\lambda }$ predicted by this model with $\lambda <1$ in the NFL regime. These results suggest that the NFL properties observed in a wide variety of f-electron systems can be described within the context of a common physical picture.

4 pages, 4 figures