ITINERANT-ELECTRON ANTIFERROMAGNETISM IN THMN2

The hexagonal Laves phase compound ThMn2 shows quite unusual magnetic behaviour that originates from itinerant antiferromagnetism in frustrated lattices. We report the results of local spin-density functional calculations solving the band structure problem self-consistently by means of the ASW method, suitably generalized to deal with non-collinear, spiral magnetic order characterized by an arbitrary wave vector. Our results explain the properties of ThMn2 satisfactorily.