1.

1 Magnetism and Correlation 3

zation of the substance is induced by the external field and vanishes in

its absence. There are, however, also cases of strong magnetism’, when
the specimen shows a spontaneous magnetization even in the absence of
an external field. Formally, the onset of magnetic ordering is signalled
by a divergent static susceptibility xfq,o = 0).
In contrast to the field-induced magnetization, the arising of spon-
taneous magnetic order can not be considered as the effect of some
small perturbation. We have already indicated that realizable mag-
netic fields are relatively weak; the dipole fields of atomic moments

- --
at atomic distances are even weaker. In ferromagnetic iron, the mag-
netic moment of the atoms is pat 2.1pB, and the nearest-neighbour
distance is a x 0.255nm 5aH where U H = h2/me2 is the Bohr ra-
dius. Recalling that a = e2/tLc
-
1/137 is the fine structure con-
stant, and that the Rydberg is 1Ry = e4m/2h2 13.6eV, the energy
of the classical dipole-dipole interaction can be estimated as ,&/a3 N

( p a t / p ~ ) 2 ( a / a ~ ) - 3Ry
N

count for a Curie temperature‘’7 -

a 2 10-5eV
N 0.1K which certainly cannot ac-
1043K ! The magnetism of iron is
not due to tiny classical moments kept aligned by sitting in each other’s
magnetic fields. (Though the idea may sound quite plausible, and was
actually put forward in the middle of the last century. It fails on two
accounts: the aligning fields would be far too weak, and magnetism is,
in any case, essentially non-classical.)
In the overwhelming majority of cases, spontaneuous magnetic order
is a manifestation of strong electron-electron interactions. It is not a
secondary effect due to a weak perturbation which you could superim-
pose on some underlying zeroth-order state. The magnetism of strongly
magnetic substances is due to the large terms in the Hamiltonian. It
arises in a natural manner whenever (from band theory) you would ex-
pect to have a metal with a relatively narrow conduction band. You
often find that the substance under consideration is not a metal at all,
but some kind of a magnetic insulator. The arising of magnetic order is
intimately related to the question of metal-insulator phase transitions.
It should be immediately remarked that although it is a general rule
that by becoming magnetic, a substance gets “less metallic”, it does
not follow that it has to be an insulator: that depends also on the band
‘This classification of substances as weakly or strongly magnetic, corresponds to
an older usage of these words. A different terminology will be discussed later.