Metallic Ferromagnetism - an Electronic Correlation Phenomenon

New insights into the microscopic origin of itinerant ferromagnetism were recently gained from investigations of electronic lattice models within dynamical meanfield theory (DMFT). In particular, it is now established that even in the one-band Hubbard model metallic ferromagnetism is stable at intermediate values of the interaction U and density n on regular, frustrated lattices. Furthermore, band degeneracy along with Hund’s rule couplings is very effective in stabilizing metallic ferromagnetism in a broad range of electron fillings. DMFT also permits one to investigate more complicated correlation models, e.g., the ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model with Coulomb interaction, describing electrons in manganites with perovskite structure. Here we review recent results obtained with DMFT which help to clarify the origin of band-ferromagnetism as a correlation phenomenon.