Determination of the antiferroquadrupolar order parameters in UPd3

By combining accurate heat capacity and x-ray resonant scattering results we have resolved the long standing question regarding the nature of the quadrupolar ordered phases in UPd3. The order parameter of the highest temperature quadrupolar phase has been uniquely determined to be antiphase Q(zx) in contrast to the previous conjecture of Q(x)(2)-y(2). The azimuthal dependence of the x-ray scattering intensity from the quadrupolar superlattice reflections indicates that the lower temperature phases are described by a superposition of order parameters. The heat capacity features associated with each of the phase transitions characterize their order, which imposes restrictions on the matrix elements of the quadrupolar operators.