  Cerium hexaboride is a cubic f-electron heavy-fermion compound that displays
a rich array of low-temperature magnetic ordering phenomena which have been the
subject of investigation for more than 50 years. Its complex behaviour is the
result of competing interactions, with both itinerant and local electrons
playing important roles. Investigating this material has proven to be a
substantial challenge, in particular because of the appearance of a
"magnetically hidden order" phase, which remained elusive to neutron-scattering
investigations for many years. It was not until the development of modern x-ray
scattering techniques that the long suspected multipolar origin of this phase
was confirmed. Doping with non-magnetic lanthanum dilutes the magnetic cerium
sublattice and reduces the f-electron count, bringing about substantial changes
to the ground state with the emergence of new phases and quantum critical
phenomena. To this day, Ce(1-x)La(x)B6 and its related compounds remain a
subject of intense interest. Despite the substantial progress in understanding
their behaviour, they continue to reveal new and unexplained physical
phenomena. Here we present a review of the accumulated body of knowledge on
this family of materials in order to provide a firm standpoint for future
investigations.
