Electronically driven instabilities in metals

Abstract

Electronically driven instabilities of the conduction electrons in metals are manifested as spin density waves, charge density waves accompanied by periodic lattice distortions, or in structural phase transformations and are thought to result from a divergence in X(q). the generalized static electronic susceptibility. Examples of these instabilities are discussed by means of accurate calculations of the noninteraction conduction electron susceptibility X(q) using results of energy-band calculations and our recently developed analytic tetrahedron linear energy method, notably, the occurrence of change density waves in the layered dichalcogenides and the body-centered cubic to omega phase transformation in metals like Zr.