Heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility of single-phaseα-cerium

The heat capacity of single-phase $\alpha$-cerium has been measured from 1.6 to 22 K and the magnetic susceptibility from 1.6 to 150 K. The electronic-specific-heat constant was found to be 12.8 ± 0.2 mJ ${\mathrm{}\left(\mathrm{g}\mathrm{atom}\right)\mathrm{}}^{-1\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{K}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ and the Debye temperature at zero degrees was found to be 179 ± 2 K. The susceptibility results show a skewed $U$ type of temperature behavior with minimum of 3.77 × ${10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$ emu ${\mathrm{g}}^{-1\mathrm{}}$ near 50 K and a rapid rise of about 20% below 20 K. The results are interpreted according to various models for the nature of $\alpha$-cerium and the $\alpha \rightleftarrows \gamma$ transition.