Spontaneous magnetization on the superconducting transition in UPt₃

Theories predict that spontaneous magnetization occurs in the superconducting B phase in UPt₃ because of broken time-reversal symmetry. The strength of the spontaneous magnetization depends on whether it comes from spin degeneracy or orbital degeneracy. We measured the internal field due to the spontaneous magnetization on the supercondicting transition to the B phase for a UPt₃ sample in the magnetic fields very close to zero, using a SQUID magnetometer. The upper limit of the spontaneous internal field was 0.007 gauss. This result seems to favor the theory of the orbital degeneracy.