  The presence, nature, and impact of chemical short-range order in the
multi-principal element alloy CrCoNi are all topics of current interest and
debate. First-principles calculations reveal that its origins are fundamentally
magnetic, involving repulsion between like-spin Co-Cr and Cr-Cr pairs that is
complemented by the formation of a magnetically aligned sublattice of
second-nearest-neighbor Cr atoms. Ordering models following these principles
are found to predict otherwise anomalous experimental measurements concerning
both net magnetization and atomic volumes across a range of compositions. In
addition to demonstrating the impact of magnetic interactions and resulting
chemical rearrangement, the possible explanation of experiments would imply
that short-range order of this type is far more prevalent than previously
realized.
