Superconductivity and magnetism: From antagonism to mutual interplay

In this paper, a brief survey is given on a number of research activities devoted to exploring the relationship between superconductivity and magnetism in f-electron systems. The starting point for these activities has been the pioneering work of 1958 by Matthias and coworkers illustrating the antagonistic nature of the two phenomena. Subsequent efforts concerned the investigation of Kondo superconductors and Kondo-lattice systems (in the 1970s), heavy-fermion metals (in the 1980s and 90s) and quantum critical materials (in the last decade). The latter systems are especially interesting as they promise a deeper insight into the mutual interplay between unconventional superconductivity and magnetism.