Fluctuating magnetic moments in liquid metals

We re-analyze literature data on neutron scattering by liquid metals to show that non-magnetic liquid metals possess a magnetic moment that fluctuates on a picosecond time scale. This time scale follows the motion of the cage-diffusion process in which an ion rattles around in the cage formed by its neighbors. We find that these fluctuating magnetic moments are present in liquid Hg, Al, Ga and Pb, and possibly also in the alkali metals.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Cage diffusion in liquid mercury

We present inelastic neutron scattering measurements on liquid mercury at room temperature for wave numbers $q$ in the range 0.3 $< q <$ 7.0 \AA$^{-1}$. We find that the energy halfwidth of the incoherent part of the dynamic structure factor $S(q,E)$ is determinded by a self-diffusion process. The halfwidth of the coherent part of $S(q, E)$ shows the characteristic behavior expected for a cage diffusion process. We also show that the response function at small wave numbers exhibits a quasi-elastic mode with a time scale characteristic of cage diffusion, however, its intensity is larger by an order of magnitude than what would be expected for cage diffusion. We speculate on a scenario in which the intensity of the cage diffusion mode at small wave numbers is amplified through a valence fluctuation mechanism.Comment: 15 pages +5 figure