Heavy fermion materials

The heavy-fermion ground state occurs in a few select metallic compounds as a result of interactions between f-electron and conduction-electron spins. A characteristically large electronic heat capacity at low temperature indicates that the effective electron mass of these materials is more than two orders of magnitude greater than that expected for a free-electron metal. This heavy-fermion ground state can become superconducting or antiferromagnetic, exhibiting very unusual properties. We will briefly discuss these materials, and the role of muon spin rotation in their study. (orig.)