Anomalous Effects in Simple Metals

This volume on the physics of simple metals features a collection of articles constituting the seminal contributions that Albert Warner Overhauser made to this field with a view toward its future as derived from his own research. He was attracted to simple metals like potassium at an early time (1951) because simple metals allowed him to study the effect of interacting electrons which are responsible for the many interesting and fundamental phenomena exhibited by these simple metals. This research area is now called emergent phenomena which address the question of how do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients . This topic remains at the forefront of condensed matter physics, as cited in the present decadal study by the US National Research Council Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 2010 Committee entitled The Science of the World Around Us .

From the contents:

Part I Introduction and Overview. Part II Reprints of SDW or CDW Phenomena in Simple Metals. Part III Unexpected Phenomena Exhibited by Metallic Potassium.

Foreword.

Part I Introduction and Overview.

1 The Simplest Metal: Potassium.

2 SDW and CDW Instabilities.

3 The CDW Wavevector Q and Q–domains.

4 Optical Anomalies.

5 Phase Excitations of an Incommensurate CDW.

6 Neutron Diffraction Satellites.

7 Phason Phenomena.

8 Fermi–Surface Distortion and the Spin–Resonance Splitting.

9 Magnetoresistivity and the Induced Torque Technique.

10 Induced Torque Anisotropy.

11 Microwave Transmission Through K Slabs in a Perpendicular Field H.

12 Angle–Resolved Photoemission.

13 Concluding Remarks.

Part II Reprints of SDW or CDW Phenomena in Simple Metals.

R1 Giant Spin Density Waves.

R2 Mechanism of Antiferromagnetism in Dilute Alloys.

R3 Spin Density Waves in an Electron Gas.

R4 Spin– Density– Wave Antiferromagnetism in Potassium.

R5 Helicon Propagation in Metals Near the Cyclotron Edge.

R6 Exchange and Correlation Instabilities of Simple Metals.

R7 Splitting of Conduction– Electron Spin Resonance in Potassium.

R8 Magnetoresistance of Potassium.

R9 Exchange Potentials in a Nonuniform Electron Gas.

R10 Observability of Charge– Density Waves by Neutron Diffraction.

R11 Questions About the Mayer– El Naby Optical Anomaly in Potassium.

R12 Theory of the Residual Resistivity Anomaly in Potassium.

R13 Electromagnetic Generation of Ultrasound in Metals.

R14 Dynamics of an Incommensurate Charge– Density Wave.

R15 Magnetodynamics of Incommensurate Charge– Density Waves.

R16 Phase Excitations of Charge Sensity Waves.

R17 Frictional Force on a Drifting Charge– Density Wave.

R18 Attenuation of Phase Excitations in Charge– Density Wave Systems.

R19 Charge– Density Waves and Isotropic Metals.

R20 Residual– Resistivity Anisotropy in Potassium.

R21 Detection of a Charge– Density Wave by Angle– Resolved Photoemission.

R22 Ultra– low– temperature Anomalies in Heat Capacities of Metals Caused by Charge– density Waves.

R23 Analysis of the Anomalous Temperature– dependent Resistivity on Potassium Below 1.6 K.

R24 Wave– Vector Orientation of a Charge– Density Wave in Potassium.

R25 Theory of Transversce Phasons in Potassium.

R26 Charge– Density– Wave Satellite Intensity in Potassium.

R27 Theory of Electron– Phason Scattering and the Low– temperature Resistivity of Potassium.

R28 Structure Factor of a Charge– Density Wave.

R29 Effective– Medium Theory of Open– Orbit Inclusions.

R30 Theory of the Open– Orbit Magnetoresistance of Potassium.

R31 Open– Orbit Magnetoresistance Spectra of Potassium.

R32 The Open Orbits of Potassium.

R33 Open– Orbits Effects in Thermal Magnetoresistance.

R34 Insights in Many– Electron Theory From the Charge Density Wave Structure of Potassium.

R35 Charge Density Wave Phenomena in Potassium.

R36 Energy Spectrum of an Incommensurate Charge– Density Wave: Potassium and Sodium.

R37 Theory of Charge– Density– Wave– Spin– Density– Wave Mixing.

R38 Crystal Structure of Lithium at 4.2 K.

R39 Theory of Induced– Torque Anomalies in Potassium.

R40 Further Evidence of an Anisotropic Hall Coefficient in Potassium.

R41 Field Dependence of the Residual– Resistivity Anisotropy in Sodium and Potassium.

R42 Effect of an Inhomogeneuous Resistivity on the Induced– Torque Pattern of a Metal Sphere.

R43 Infrared– absorption Spectrum of an Incommensurate Charge– Density Wave: Pottassium and Sodium.

R44 Dynamic M–shell Effects in the Ultraviolet Absorption Spectrum of Metallic Potasium.

R45 Broken Symmentry in Simple Metals.

R46 Photoemission from the Charge– Density Wave in Na and K.

R47 Phason Narrowing of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Pottassium.

R48 Theory of the Perpendicular– Field Cyclotron– Resonance Anomaly in Potassium.

R49 Direct Observation of the Charge–Density Wave in Potassium by Neutron Diffraction.

R50 Phason Anisotropy and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Potassium.

R51 Satellite–Intensity Patterns From the Charge–Density Wave in Potassium.

R52 Magnetoserpentine Effect in Single–Crystal Potassium.

R53 Charge Density Wave Satellites in Potassium?.

R54 Fermi–Surface Structure of Potassium in the Charge–Density–Wave State.

R55 Neutron–Diffraction Structure in Potassium Near the [011] and [022] Bragg Points.

R56 Quantum Oscillations From the Cylindrical Fermi–Surface Sheet of Potassium Created by the Charge–Density Wave.

R57 Magnetotransmission of Microwaves Through Potassium Slabs.

R58 Microwave Surface Resistance of Potassium in a Perpendicular Magnetic Field: Effects of the Charge–Density Wave.

R59 Cyclotron–Resonance Transmission Through Potassium in a Perpendicular Magnetic Field: Effects of the Charge–Density Wave.

R60 Influence of Electron–Electron Scattering on the Electrical Resistivity Caused by Oriented Line Imperfections.

R61 Theory of the Fourfold Induced–Torque Anisotropy in Potassium.

R62 Observation of Phasons in Metallic Rubidium.

R63 Theory of Induced–Torque Anomalies in Potassium.

R64 Magnetoflicker Noise in Na and K.

R65 Influence of Charge–Density–Wave Structure on Paramagnetic Spin Waves in Alkali Metals.

Part III Unexpected Phenomena Exhibited by Metallic Potassium. ?

Albert Overhauser graduated in Physics and Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1951 he was awarded the Ph.D. in Physics for research carried out under the supervision of Charles Kittel. He began his professional career at the University of Illinois where he developed his famous theory of dynamic nuclear polarization which shortly after its experimental confirmation became known by its current name, the Overhauser effect. In 1953 he went to Cornell, which he left in 1958 to accept a position at Ford. In 1973 he became Professor of Physics at Purdue University.
Albert Overhauser has received numerous distiguished honors, and in 1994 was being awarded the National Medal of Science; the highest honor the United States bestows on its citizens for scientific achievement, "For his fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of solids, to theoretical physics and for the impact of his technological advances..."


"Using potassium as an example, this work presents a unique approach to the anomalous effects in metals, resulting in knowledge that can be applied to similar materials." (ETDE Energy database, 14 February 2011)