A new method for including locally based correlations in the electronic structure of cerium and uranium materials

We discuss certain general features introduced by f to p/d hybridization acting together with coulomb exchange in systems having strong on-site f-f coulomb repulsion. A systematic treatment of the consequences of hybridization and coulomb exchange quite naturally leads to a picture in which narrow bands of predominantly f composition with competing singlet-like and magnetic characters lie on top of broad bands of predominantly p-d character. In this picture, on taking account of the two-body correlations built into the narrow bands and properly including the temperature dependence of the chemical potential, one obtains thermodynamic properties, such as the specific heat and susceptibility, that change over in behavior at characteristic temperatures corresponding to the narrow-band width determined by the locally acting hybridization/coulomb exchange interactions. This is without the need to invoke some specifically resonant state interaction between the f-states and a collective state of the p/d band electrons.