Non-Fermi-Liquid Behavior of Electron-Spin Fluctuations in an Elemental Paramagnet

We report for the first time, the observation of non-Fermi-liquid scaling behavior in an elemental paramagnetic metal. Both the dynamical susceptibility and the resistivity of β-Mn are shown to display non-Fermi-liquid scaling over a relatively large temperature range at ambient pressure. The temperature dependence of the resistivity in β-Mn is consistent with the existence of an antiferromagnetic zero-temperature phase transition or ``quantum critical point.'' Since there is no site disorder in this pure element, we show that non-Fermi-liquid behavior observed in β-Mn is not a consequence of summing over different local atomic environments, but a much more fundamental phenomenon.