Partial Magnetic Order in Kondo Lattices

Abstract

We propose an effective Hamiltonian approach to understand a variety of partially magnetically ordered phases in a Kondo lattice. Such partial order, where only selected sites are Kondo-screened while the others develop local moments, have been observed in many heavy-fermion compounds. The proposed effective Hamiltonian retains two important features of the fundamental Kondo-lattice model: (i) formation of a Kondo singlet leading to vanishing of the local magnetic moment, and (ii) spatially correlated nature of the electronic kinetic energy. The Hamiltonian belongs to a class of coupled classical-quantum models that can be reliably studied using hybrid Monte Carlo simulations. I will try to motivate the model and demonstrate the approach for the case of a square lattice where we unveil a number of magnetic phases with partial order. I will further motivate a fully classical spin model to describe the partial magnetic order in Kondo lattices.