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Near quantum criticality


The typical pressure-temperature phase diagram of a heavy-fermion antiferromagnet. Cerium indium (CeIn3) has been studied extensively in Cambridge, Grenoble and Osaka. At low pressures and temperatures the material is antiferromagnetic (blue), while at high pressures it is behaves like a "Fermi liquid" (purple).

Interestingly, CeIn3 has a quantum critical point at about 28 kbar. Here, the antiferromagnetic order and the Néel temperature vanish and CeIn3 becomes superconducting (yellow) over a narrow pressure range on either side of the critical pressure.

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