COLLECTIVE ELECTRON FERROMAGNETISM IN METALS AND ALLOYS

By E. C. STONER,

Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Leeds (England).


1. Introduction. 

--- Although it has been suggested that participants in this conference should survey generally the present position in the field on which they are reporting, it would serve no useful purpose for me to cover more hurriedly precisely the same ground as do the recent comprehensive and general reviews of the theory of ferromagnetism by Van Vleck [1945, see also 1947, 1949] and by myself [Stoner, 1948]. Further, one aspect of the subject will be presented by Van Vleck himself with far more authority than I could claim. There are two main approaches to the theoretical interpretation of the fundamental phenomena of ferromagnetism, one deriving from the HeitlerLondon treatment of molecules, starting from atomic wave functions, the other deriving from the electron energy band treatment of metals, which has a close analogy with the Hund-Mulliken treatment of molecules, using molecular orbitals. It is the second approach with which I shall deal, and in particular with the theoretical work at Leeds on what I have ventured to call ((collective electron ferromagnetism».

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/jpa-00234396/document