E5963: Stoner ferromagnetism

Submitted by: Amir Bernat

The problem:
Consider Fermi gas of N spin
1
2
electrons at temperature T = 0, with N
+
up electrons and N

down electrons, such that N = N

+
+ N

. Due to the antisymmetry of the total wave function

the energy of the system is:
U =
N
+
N

V
Where V is the volume. Note that this interaction favors parallel spin states. Dene the magneti-
zation as M =
N
+
N

V
.
(a) Write the total energy E(M) including both the kinetic energy and the interaction, and expand
up to 4th order in M.
(b) Find the critical value
c
such that for >
c
the electron gas can lower its total energy by
spontaneously developing magnetization. This is known as the Stoner instability.
(c) Explain the instability qualitatively, and sketch the behavior of the spontaneous magnetization
as a function of .
(d) Repeat (a) at nite but low temperatures T, and nd
c
(T) to second order in T.
The solution:
(a) The total energy is the sum of the kinetic and potential energy E
T
= E
K
+ U. We will rst
calculate the Kinetic energy using prior knowledge of fermion gas, then we will add the potential
energy. First we note that at ground level the Fermi level is completely populated and thus we can
calculate for one of the spin directions:
N

= V
_
k
F
0
d
3
k
(2)
3
k
F
=
_
6
2
n

_
1/3
Where we have used:
d
3
k
(2)
3
= 4k
2
dk, we will use this to evaluate the kinetic energy:
E
K
= 2V
_
k
F
0
(k)
d
3
k
(2)
3
2V
_
k
F
0

2
k
2
2m
4k
2
dk k
5
F
So for T = 0 the kinetic energy is:
E
0
V
=
4
2
5m
_
6
2
_
5/3
n
5/3
Where we used: (k) =
p
2
2m
=

2
k
2
2m
. We wish to evaluate n
5/3
+
and n
5/3

at equilibrium: n
+
=
n
2
+,
n

=
n
2
so that the magnetization is M = n
+
n

= 2. Let us expand n
5/3
+
to 4th order:
n
5/3
+
=
n
2
5
3
_
1 +
2
n
_5
3

n
2
5
3
_
1 +
5
3
x +
5
3
2
3
2
x
2
+
5
3
2
3
1
3
6
x
3
+
5
3
2
3
1
3
4
3
24
x
4
_
1
n
5/3
+
=
n
2
5
3
_
1 +
5
3
x +
5
9
x
2

5
81
x
3
+
5
243
x
4
+o(x
5
)
_
In a similar fashion we expand n
5/3

n
5/3

=
n
2
5
3
_
1
2
n
_5
3

n
2
5
3
_
1
5
3
x +
5
3
2
3
2
x
2

5
3
2
3
1
3
6
x
3
+
5
3
2
3
1
3
4
3
24
x
4
_
n
5/3

=
n
2
5
3
_
1
5
3
x +
5
9
x
2
+
5
81
x
3
+
5
243
x
4
o(x
5
)
_
Where we assigned x =
2
n
=
M
n
<< 1, we can see that while the even orders of x have the same
sign, the odd orders are of opposite sign thus when adding we are left with the even orders:
n
5
3
+
+n
5
3

=
n
2
5
3
_
2 +
10
9
_
M
n
_
2
+
10
243
_
M
n
_
4
_
E
K
V
= 2
E
0
V
+
_
1
3
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

1
3
_
M
2
+
_
1
81
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

7
3
_
M
4
the potential energy is:
U = (n
+
n

) =
__
n
2
+
__
n
2

__
=
_
n
2
_
2

2
=
_
n
2
_
2

_
M
2
_
2
The total energy is:
E
T
= 2
E
0
V
+
n
2
2
+
_
1
3
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

1
3


4
_
M
2
+
_
1
81
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

7
3
_
M
4
(b) We can note that the coecient of M
4
is always positive, but for dierent values of the
coecient of M
2
can change its sign. The critical value
c
is dened when the coecient equals
zero.

c
=
4
3
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

1
3
We can note that this is a similar expression of the density of states of a 3D Fermi gas with a
multiplicity of 2:
1
N
=
4
3
_
3
2
_2
3

2
2m
n

1
3
We dene the Stoner criteria as >
1
N
F
.
(c) Let us denote C
4
as the coecient of M
4
and C
2
=
c
as the coecient for M
2
. the
derivative of the energy allows us to see the behavior of the magnetization at minimum energy:
E
M
= 2C
2
M + 4C
4
M
3
= 0 M
2
=
C
2
2C
4
=

c
2C
4
2
5963.JPG
Figure 1: Change of magnetization over a change of alpha
(d) At nite low temperatures the Fermi-Dirac population function can no longer be described as
a step function, we thus use Zommerfelds approximation:
F
N
=
3
5

F
_
1
5
2
12
_
kT

F
_
2
+O
_
kt

F
_
4
_
Where the small term is:
_
kt

F
_
<< 1. By implementing Zommerfelds approximation and using
N

F
= 2m
_
4
3h
2
_2
3
n
1
3
V
The complete free energy is:
F = F
+
+F

= E
0+
+E
0

2
4
(kT)
2
_
4
3h
2
_
V
_
n
1
3
+
+n
1
3

_
Developing to second order in M we see that: n

_
n
2
_1
3

2
2
3
9
M
2
n
5
3
. The energy of the system can
now be written as:
E = E
0
(T) + (
c
+(kT)
2
)
_
M
2
_
2
+C
4
M
4
Where: E
0
(T) is the constant energy in the system: E
0
(T) = 2
E
0
V
+
n
2
2

2
4
(kT)
2
_
4
3h
2
_
V
_
n
2
_1
3

is the correction due to nonzero temperatures: =

2
2
3
9

2
4n
5
3
_
4
3h
2
_
V
_
n
2
_1
3
A phase transition will occur when:

c
+(kT)
2
= 0
So, we can now assign
c
(T) =
c
(0) + (kT)
2
. from this expression we see that the higher the
temperature is, we will need a stronger coupling constant.
3