  Laves RFe2 compounds, where R is a rare earth, exhibit technologically
relevant properties associated with the interplay between their lattice
geometry and magnetism. We apply ab~initio calculations to explore how magnetic
properties of Fe in RFe2 systems vary with temperature. We found that the ratio
between the orbital magnetic moment m_orb and the spin magnetic moment m_spin
increases with increasing temperature for YFe2, GdFe2, TbFe2, DyFe2, and HoFe2.
This increase is significant and it should be experimentally observable by
means of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We conjecture that the predicted
increase of the m_orb/m_spin ratio with temperature is linked to the reduction
of hybridization between same-spin-channel states of atoms with fluctuating
magnetic moments and to the associated increase of their atomic-like character.
