Quantum temperature fluctuations in the magnetization of antiferromagnetic semimetals

It is shown that in semimetallic, low-temperature antiferromagnetic materials located in a quantizing magnetic field, the part of the band magnetization M∼ which oscillates in H can have a nonmonotonic temperature dependence. This non-Fermi liquid behavior will show up experimentally in the form of quantum temperature fluctuations of the magnetization when the decrease with rising temperature is oscillatory, rather than the usual monotonic decrease. It is shown that the magnetization from an individual spin electron (or hole) subband has the form of weakly damped periodic oscillations as a function of T2. This result makes it possible to develop an efficient method for studying the electronic structure of antiferromagnetic semimetals based on an examination of the quantum temperature fluctuations. Calculations show that quantum temperature fluctuations can be observed, for example, in the cerium monopnictides CeP and CeAs, which are strongly correlated, antiferromagnetic, compensated semimetals with low Neel temperatures.