  The competition between the tendency of magnetic moments to order at low
temperatures, and the tendency of conduction electrons to shield these moments,
can result in a phase transition that takes place at zero Kelvin, the quantum
critical point (QCP). So far, the ground state of these types of systems has
remained unresolved. We present neutron scattering experiments that show that
the ground state of a sample representative of a class of QCP-systems is
determined by the residual interactions between the conduction electrons,
resulting in a state with incommensurate intermediate-range order. However,
long-range order is thwarted by quantum fluctuations that locally destroy
magnetic moments, leaving the system with too few moments to achieve long-range
order.
