Nonmagnetic Phase of a Dilute Transition Series Alloy

Abstract

We construct a nonmagnetic singlet ground state and the magnetic excited states of an isolated S=1/2 impurity atom in a metal, using holes below the Fermi level and electrons above it. The error in the variational energies is O(1%). The size of magnetic eigenstates is very large where the energy is a minimum, while the nonmagnetic ground is always compact with ξ=O(1) inter-atomic distance. This relates to the disappearance or re-appearance of magnetic moments and their RKKY-type interactions with slight shifts in the Fermi level.