Disorder effects on transport near AFM quantum phase transitions

Abstract

We discuss three different scenarios recently proposed to account for the non-Fermi liquid behavior near antiferromagnetic (AFM) quantum critical points in heavy-Fermion systems: (i) scattering of Fermi liquid quasiparticles by strong spin fluctuations near the spin-density-wave instability, (ii) the breakdown of the Kondo effect due to the competition with the RKKY interaction, and (iii) the formation of magnetic regions due to rare configurations of the disorder. Here we focus on the first scenario and show that it explains in some detail the anomalous temperature dependence of the resistivity observed e.g. in CePd_2Si_2, CeNi_2Ge_2 or CeIn_3. The interplay of strongly anisotropic scattering due to critical spin-fluctuations and weak isotropic impurity scattering leads to a regime with a resistivity rho = rho_0 +Delta rho(T), Delta rho(T) =T^{3/2} f(T/rho_0) \propto T sqrt{rho_0} for sufficiently large T and small rho_0.