Orbital Polarization in Itinerant Magnets

Abstract

We propose a parameter-free scheme of calculation of the orbital polarization (OP) in metals, which starts with the strong-coupling limit for the screened Coulomb interactions in the random-phase approximation (RPA). For itinerant magnets, RPA can be further improved by restoring the spin polarization of the local-spin-density approximation (LSDA) through the local-field corrections. The OP is then computed in the static GW approach, which systematically improves the orbital magnetization and the magnetic anisotropy energies in transition-metal and actinide compounds.