Magnetism and superconductivity in the heavy-fermion material CePb3

The properties of the heavy-fermion material CePb, have been examined within the framework of density functional theory. The LMTO method has been used to study the electronic structure in both the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. Comparison of the bare susceptibility and specific heat with experiment enables us to estimate the enhancement factors which turn out to be very large. The details of the magnetic properties are discussed. We have also calculated the superconducting transition temperature and show that the electron-phonon interaction is a feasible mechanism for superconductivity. The results are compared with an analogous calculation for CeSn3,The implications of this work for current theories of heavy fermions are discussed.