The utility of band theory in strongly correlated electron systems

This article attempts to review how band structure calculations can help to better understand the intriguing behavior of materials with strongly correlated electrons. Prominent examples are heavy-fermion systems whose highly anomalous low-temperature properties result from quantum correlations not captured by standard methods of electronic structure calculations. It is shown how the band approach can be modified to incorporate the typical many-body effects which characterize the low-energy excitations. Examples underlining the predictive power of this ansatz are discussed.