Acoustic anomalies in UPt3 at high magnetic fields and low temperatures

Ultrasound velocity and attenuation measurements were performed on single crystals of the heavy fermion compound UPt3 in magnetic fields up to 33 T and at temperatures ranging from 2.4 K to below 0.1 K. With longitudinal sound propagated in the crystallographic basal plane, parallel to the applied field, the familiar elastic softening is observed at the metamagnetic transition field H-20.2 T. More complicated structure emerges at low temperatures, including quantum acoustic oscillations and a second velocity minimum at -21.6 T. A weak frequency dependence (dispersion) is observed in the velocity. The ultrasonic data are analyzed using the Landau-Khalatnikov formalism, from which temperature- and field-dependent relaxation times are deduced.