Electronic Structure of Actinide Intermetallic Compounds: Systems with Properties varying from Paramagnetism, Itinerant Magnetism, Heavy Fermion Behaviour to 5f Localization

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Abstract
The electronic structure of the actinides (An) is briefly reviewed and special emphasis is given to the drastic change in 5f electron behaviour which takes place when one proceeds from the light to the hevy elements. A similar change is found for the AnRh3, intermetalic systems as a function of the actinide atomic number, although the transition seems more gradual than for the pure elements. The present theoretical calculations yield paramagnetism for the earlier systems AcRh3, ThRh3, PaRh3 and URh3, but indicate magnetism for NpRh3 and PuRh3. For AmRh3 and CmRh3 the 5f electrons apprear to be localized in the same way as the 4f electrons are in corresponding lanthanide systems. A study of the bulk properties of UPt3 and related compounds suggests that a 5f2 local configuration should be an appropriate starting point to describe its electronic properties. Electronic structure calculations for uranium-3d transition metal Laves compounds are also presented. Here aspects of magnetism are considered together with equilibrium volumes, and in geneal good agreement with experiment is obtained. Actinide dihydrides display, for the earlier actinide elements, quite different behaviour than the corresponding rare-earth compounds. It is shown that NpH2 is a quite likely candidate for mixed valence behaviour.

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