A Little About Folklore

TL;DR

This paper critiques P.W. Anderson's work on folklore in physics, clarifying misconceptions about dielectric functions and electron-phonon interactions, and emphasizing the importance of accurate theoretical understanding.

Contribution

It corrects inaccuracies in Anderson's paper, particularly regarding dielectric functions and electron-phonon interactions, providing clearer insights into stable systems and metallic behavior.

Findings

The static dielectric function can be negative and must have a minus sign in many stable systems.

In many metals, electron-phonon interaction can surpass Coulomb repulsion without additional renormalization.

The paper clarifies misconceptions in Anderson's original statements about these phenomena.

Abstract

Comment on paper by P.W. Anderson is presented. This Anderson's work is shown to contain a number of inaccurate and ungrounded statements. We point out, in particular, that the total static dielectric function not only can be negative, but inevitably has a minus sign in many stable systems. We also demonstrate that in many metals, the effective electron-phonon interaction is stronger than the direct Coulomb repulsion, without taking into account the ladder-sum renormalization or pseudization of the Coulomb repulsion. Other issues touched in Anderson's paper are also discussed.