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Plutonium and Quantum Criticlity

G. Chapline·M. Fluss·S. McCall
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Abstract

The unusual properties of elemental plutonium have long been a puzzle. It has been suggested that these properties may be related to quantum criticality [G. Chapline, J. L. Smith LA Sci 26 (2000) 1]. In this talk we will describe some experimental observations on rare earth and actinide materials which suggest that there are pairing correlations in all f-electron metals, and that the anomalous properties of the elemental actinides in the vicinity of Np/Pu/Am,even at elevated temperatures, is associated with a critical point in the variation of the density of paired electrons with atomic number.

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G. Chapline, M. Fluss, S. McCall. 2007-01-04. Plutonium and Quantum Criticlity. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0701064

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