Interplay between heavy fermions and crystal-field excitation in Kondo lattices: Low-temperature thermodynamics and inelastic neutron scattering spectra of CeNiSn

The microscopic theory of interaction between the heavy fermions and the crystal-field excitations in Kondo lattices is presented. It is shown that the heavy-fermion spectrum scaled by the Kondo temperature T-K can be modified by the crystal-field excitations with the energy Delta(CF) provided the inequality Delta(CF)<T-K is realized. On the base of the general description of the excitation spectrum, the detailed qualitative and quantitative explanation of anisotropic inelastic neutron scattering spectra and low-temperature specific heat of orthorhombic CeNiSn is given. The theory resolves the apparent contradiction between the metallic conductivity and the gapwise behavior of thermodynamic properties and spin response of CeNiSn at low temperatures.