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A strongly correlated material whose low-energy electronic quasiparticles have a very large thermodynamic effective mass. An enhanced electronic heat capacity coefficient, spin susceptibility and quantum-oscillation cyclotron effective mass are complementary signatures; they need not all be related by a single isotropic band mass. A Kondo lattice is an important setting for such behaviour. In CeAl3, low-temperature specific heat and quadratic resistivity provided an early quantitative example.^[ref]

The 1975 measurements of CeAl3 below $0.2\mathrm{K}$ found an electronic heat capacity coefficient of $1.62\mathrm{J}\mathrm{mo}{\mathrm{l}}^{-1}{\mathrm{K}}^{-2}$ and a quadratic electrical-resistivity coefficient of $35\mu \mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{K}}^{-2}$. These are complementary thermal and transport signatures of an unusually dense low-energy electronic spectrum.^[ref] A temperature sweep and a $C/T$ versus $T^2$ fit separate the electronic intercept from a Debye lattice term; the transport comparison tests a Fermi liquid temperature law.

In a heavy fermion material, interactions of narrow, often $f$-derived states with conduction electrons produce low-energy quasiparticles with very large thermodynamic effective mass. A coherent Kondo lattice can form a narrow low-energy band, so the large mass is an interaction-renormalized response rather than a larger bare electron mass.

Two concrete experimental signatures are an enormous linear electronic heat capacity coefficient and a strongly enhanced quadratic low-temperature electrical resistivity. Calorimetry separates $C=\gamma T+\beta T^3$ by plotting $C/T$ against $T^2$; the intercept measures the electronic coefficient rather than a lattice contribution. Four-terminal transport tests the Fermi liquid law $\rho ={\rho }_0+A{T}^2$. The low-temperature calorimetry and resistivity of CeAl3 found $\gamma =1.62\mathrm{J}\mathrm{mo}{\mathrm{l}}^{-1}{\mathrm{K}}^{-2}$ and $A=35\mu \mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{K}}^{-2}$ below $0.2\mathrm{K}$, making both signatures quantitative.^[ref]

An enhanced nearly temperature-independent spin susceptibility and a large quantum-oscillation cyclotron effective mass provide additional tests. Not every heavy-fermion compound has the same ordered ground state; magnetism or superconductivity can intervene before a simple normal Fermi-liquid limit is reached.