1.

4 Correlation Effects 15

model. In these studies, it is assumed that valuable insight into the be-
haviour of complicated systems can be gained by using models with a
few parameters, and a small number of states per unit cell. Whenever
applicable, this approach offers us a detailed understanding of the mech-
anism of collective phenomena. The approach works quite wonderfully
for antiferromagnetic Mott insulators, or heavy fermion metals, but at
the time of writing, it is debated which lattice model would be most
suitable to explain itinerant ferromagnetism, Some of the options are
described in Ch. 8.
Though only macroscopic systems undergo phase transitions and
show spontaneous magnetic order, correlation effects arise as soon as
we have two interacting electrons. Both the relative simplicity of the
problem, and the importance for the interpretation of experiments, jus-
tify spending some time on the study of few-electron systems: atoms,
ions, and molecules (Ch. 2). Since correlation tends to localize the elec-
trons onto ions, what we learn about the ionic properties, wilI be very
helpful in understanding the paramagnetic phase of strongly correlated
d- and f-electron systems. The free-ion behaviour is, however, modified
by crystal field effects: these will be described in Ch. 3. Much of this
is, of course, fairly standard stuff but even in these introductory chap-
ters, we are trying to bring examples which correspond to our current
interest in Mott insulators and heavy fermion systems.
Solving the eigenvalue problem of an electron moving on a homoge-
neous background yields Landau quantization and provides the setting
for an introduction into the Quantum Hall Effect, both integer and
fractional (Ch. 12).
The main thrust of the course is to develop a qualitative under-
standing of strongly correlated lattice systems (Chs. 4 to 11). We
are going to see that the major effect of a sufficiently strong electron-
electron interaction is to cause a Mott transition, a correlation-driven
metal-insulator transition (Chs. 4 and 9). We will understand that
once a system has become a Mott insulator, it will also want to be an
ordered magnet (usually an antiferrornagnet, see Ch. 5). However, this
is not the only regime where magnetism occurs (Ch. 7). First, spe-
cial features of the band structure may allow even a weakly interacting
system to become a magnetic insulator. More important is that, in or-
der to have a correlated insulator, the band filling has to be at (or at