Nature of Ce-Ce interaction in CeB6: importance of AF octupolar moments

The interaction between nearest-neighbor Ce3+ ions in CeB6 is determined by considering constraints due to the Gamma(8) symmetry in the crystal-field ground state. The resulting interaction is such that when the AF quadrupole -quadrupole interaction of T-5-type is strong, the AF octupole-octupole int eraction of T-xyz is equally strong. Therefore, a strong support is given t o the importance of AF T-xyz octupoles in CeB6, as suggested before. (C) 20 00 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.