Transport and thermal properties of heavy-fermion superconductors: A unified picture.

The measured temperature dependence of the nuclear magnetic relaxation rate, thermal conductivity, transverse and longitudinal sound attenuation and the specific heat in the heavy-fermion superconductors UPt(3), UBe(13), and CeCu(2)Si(2) are discussed. It is found that all of them can be explained consistently in terms of i) an anisotropic order parameter with a line or lines of nodes and ii) an effective mean free path which is temperature independent over a substantial range below T(c) and of a similar magnitude as in the normal state. Such a mean free path is shown to arise in a consistent treatment of impurity scattering close to the unitarity limit.