Electrons in 5f Systems

The localized/delocalized duality of 5f electrons plays an important role in understanding the complex physics of actinides. Band-structure calculations based on the ad hoc assumption that 5f electrons are simultaneously localized and delocalized explained the observed dHvA experiments very well. This ad hoc assumption also gives the correct equilibrium volume for delta-Pu. Experimentally, the duality of 5f electrons is observed by inelastic neutron scattering experiments, or by soft X-ray angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. It is worth recalling that the origin of partial localization in the 3d and 5f systems is quite different. In compounds with 3d electrons, the large crystalline electric field set up by the surrounding environment of transition metal ions plays a major role. On the other hand, in 5f systems, the Hund's rule correlations play the key role whilst the crystalline electric field is less important. In this thesis we have studied the effect of intra-atomic correlations on anisotropies in hopping matrix elements of different 5f orbitals. For that purpose, we used the effective model that includes on-site interactions that are responsible for Hund's rules and effective hopping terms that result from the hybridization of different 5f orbitals with the environment. Two different approximations, namely, rotationally invariant slave-boson mean-field (RISBMF) and infinite time-evolving block decimation (iTEBD), have been used to investigate the ground-state properties of the Hamiltonian. We have demonstrated that Hund's rule correlations enhance strongly anisotropies in hopping matrix elements. For a certain range of 5f bandwidth parameters this effect may result in a complete suppression of hopping processes for some of 5f orbitals, i.e., the system is in a partially localized phase. Within the RISBMF method, we calculated the ground-state properties and the phase diagram of the system. The suppression of hopping processes in some of 5f orbitals due to Hund's rule correlations can be seen through orbital-dependent quasiparticle weights. In a mean-field theory, a quasiparticle weight of zero for an orbital means a complete suppression of hopping processes in this orbital. Thus, quasiparticle weights and occupation numbers were used to classify partially localized phases. In the calculated phase diagram we obtain four partially localized phases that can be separated into two different sets. In the first set electrons in two orbitals are localized. In the second, electrons in one orbital are localized. The difference between the two sets is not simply the number of localized orbitals but the mechanism for the partial localization. For the first set, the Hund's rule mechanism applies: only those 5f electrons that enable the remaining ones to form a Hund's rule state will delocalize. This mechanism requires to have at least two localized orbitals, therefore it is definitely not applicable to those phases with only one localized orbital. For the second set, a situation similar to a single-band Mott-Hubbard transition applies. The direct on-site Coulomb interaction between jz and -jz electrons plays the key role for understanding the partial localization transition. In order to assess the validity of the RISBMF results we have used the iTEBD method to calculate the ground-state properties of a 1D system. Qualitatively, the two approaches agree with each other. However, we found an area where the RISBMF yields an artificial ground-state. Note that the mean-field method is worst for a 1D system. Therefore one shoud not judge from it the quality of the RISBMF method for the more general case