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5f-Electron Excitation Energies and the Coulomb Term, U, in the Light Actinide Metals
Published
Author(s)
J F. Herbst, R E. Watson
Abstract
Relativistic Hartree-Fock-Wigner-Seitz band calculations have been performed for the actinide metals Ac through Am in order to estimate 5f excitation energies. Our calculations predict that the tetravalent state (i.e., four s-d conduction electrons) is favored for the lighter elements with a crossover to a trivalent ground state occurring near uranium. We find the Coulomb energy, U, for 5f electron hopping to increase from 2-3 eV at Th to 4-5 eV at Am.
Citation
Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
Herbst, J.
and Watson, R.
(1975),
5f-Electron Excitation Energies and the Coulomb Term, U, in the Light Actinide Metals, Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
(Accessed October 15, 2025)