One of the central mysteries of strongly correlated electronic systems is the origin of the non-Fermi liquid (NFL) phase — a highly entangled quantum state that holds abiding fascination owing to its prime connections with unconventional superconductivity and quantum critically [1]. Metallic systems with strong hybridization between multipolar local moments and conduction electrons offer a fascinating stage for exploring the purely orbital-driven NFL and quantum criticality. The heavy-fermion superconductor PrV₂Al₂₀ is a model system of this kind, which features a nonmagnetic ground-state doublet, hosting both electric quadrupoles and magnetic octupoles [2,3]. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the NFL behavior in PrV₂Al₂₀ single crystals using transport and thermodynamic measurements [3]. Our findings reveal that the multipolar Kondo effect plays a crucial role in shaping the NFL behavior in PrV₂Al₂₀ and leads to field-induced quantum critical phenomena radically different from that observed in magnetic heavy fermion systems.

[1] P. Gegenwart, Q. Si, and F. Steglich, Nat. Phys. 4, 186 (2008)
[2] A. Sakai and S. Nakatsuji, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 80, 063701 (2011)
[3] M. Tsujimoto, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 267001 (2014)
[3] M. Fu et al., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 89, 013704 (2020)