Anomalous specific heat of CeB6

Specific heat measurement of CeB₆ has been performed over the temperature region 1.6–77 K. Particularly the low-temperature anomaly, which consists of a sharp peak and a broad satellite, was examined in applied magnetic field up to 1.8 T. The observed field dependence and the entropy consideration reveal that both the two peaks are related to some intrinsic phase transitions which involve a complicated process of magnetic ordering. In the light of the reported data on magnetic properties, the anomalous features of this compound are discussed in terms of the unusual exchange interaction which differs remarkably in magnitude between the ground state and the excited state.