  Many cerium-based heavy fermion (HF) compounds have pressure-temperature
phase diagrams in which a superconducting region extends far from a magnetic
quantum critical point. In at least two compounds, CeCu2Si2 and CeCu2Ge2, an
enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature was found to coincide
with an abrupt valence change, with strong circumstantial evidence for pairing
mediated by critical valence, or charge transfer, fluctuations. This pairing
mechanism, and the valence instability, is a consequence of a f-c Coulomb
repulsion term U_fc in the hamiltonian. While some non-superconducting Ce
compounds show a clear first order valence instability, analogous to the Ce
alpha-gamma transition, we argue that a weakly first order valence transition
may be a general feature of Ce-based HF systems, and both magnetic and critical
valence fluctuations may be responsible for the superconductivity in these
systems.
