  Possible Kondo effect in Pr skutterudite is studied with attention to
characteristic features of low-lying crystalline electric field (CEF) levels
and the conduction band. A mechanism for the small CEF splitting between a
singlet and a triplet is proposed as combination of the point-charge
interaction and hybridization of 4f with ligand p states. Provided 4f^3
configurations dominate over 4f^1 as intermediate states, p-f hybridization
favors the triplet, while point-charge interaction favors the singlet. For
realistic parameters for hybridization as well as 4f^1 and 4f^3 levels, these
singlet and triplet can form a nearly degenerate pseudo-quartet. It is found
that one of two spin 1/2 objects composing the pseudo-quartet has a
ferromagnetic exchange, while the other has an antiferromagnetic exchange with
conduction electrons. The magnitude of each effective exchange depends strongly
on a parameter characterizing the triplet wave function under the T_h symmetry.
It is argued that differences of this parameter among Pr skutterdudites are
responsible for the apparent diversity of their physical properties. Numerical
renormalization group is used to derive the renormalization flows going toward
singlet, doublet, triplet or quaret according to the CEF splitting and exchange
interactions.
