Conduction-electron-mediated exchange

A localized magnetic moment can polarize a metal's conduction electrons, whose response changes the energy of a second moment. This indirect exchange interaction can be long ranged and oscillate in sign with separation because of the Fermi surface. In the three-dimensional isotropic free-electron asymptotic limit its range dependence is proportional to $\cos (2k_{F}r)/r^3$, with coupling-dependent prefactor and sign convention. The original calculation for nuclear moments used their contact hyperfine interaction with conduction electrons; it was motivated by nuclear magnetic resonance line widths in metallic silver.^[ref]