Interplay between Kondo suppression and Lifshitz transitions in YbRh2Si2 at high magnetic fields

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Jun 21;110(25):256403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.256403. Epub 2013 Jun 19.

Abstract

We investigate the magnetic field dependent thermopower, thermal conductivity, resistivity, and Hall effect in the heavy fermion metal YbRh2Si2. In contrast to reports on thermodynamic measurements, we find in total three transitions at high fields, rather than a single one at 10 T. Using the Mott formula together with renormalized band calculations, we identify Lifshitz transitions as their origin. The predictions of the calculations show that all experimental results rely on an interplay of a smooth suppression of the Kondo effect and the spin splitting of the flat hybridized bands.