Transport properties of intermediate valence compounds studied within the alloy analog approximation of the Periodic Anderson Model

Abstract

We use the Periodic Anderson Model (PAM) to describe the transport properties of intermediate valence compounds. The transport quantities of interest are related to the current-current response function. Therefore, a current operator being consistent with the PAM Hamiltonian must be defined. This aim is achieved by defining a proper particle density operator and using the continuity equation. The PAM is treated within the alloy analog approximation, i.e. it is replaced by the sum of two effective single-particle “alloy”-Hamiltonians, which are treated within the coherent potential approximation (CPA). Then the CPA for transport quantities is used to calculate the current-current response function. It is shown that for all reasonable assumptions for the conduction band and the hybridization dispersion the current vertex corrections vanish within the CPA. For different assumptions concerning the hybridization dispersion, we present numerical results for the temperature and parameter dependence of some transport quantities, in particular the static resistivity. The relevance of these results for the understanding of the typical experimental resistivity behaviour obtained for different intermediate valence compounds and possible shortcomings of our approach are discussed.