Coupling of conduction electrons to two-level systems formed by hydrogen: A scattering approach

TL;DR

This paper models the interaction between tunneling protons and conduction electrons in metals, revealing a simple correlation between atomic motion and electron scattering, and concludes the coupling is too weak for the two-channel Kondo effect.

Contribution

It introduces a scattering approach to model proton-electron interactions, deriving a simple relation between atomic motion and electron phase shifts, and assesses the coupling strength in metallic glasses.

Findings

Coupling strength is within the range observed in ultrasound experiments.

The interaction is too weak to support the two-channel Kondo effect.

A simple correlation between TLS motion and electron angular momentum change is established.

Abstract

An effective Hamiltonian which could model the interaction between a tunneling proton and the conduction electrons of a metal is investigated. A remarkably simple correlation between the motion of the $TLS$-atom and an angular-momentum change of scattering electron is deduced, at the first-order Born level, by using a momentum-space representation with plane waves for initial and final states. It is shown that the angular average of the scattering amplitude-change at the Fermi surface depends solely on the difference of the first two phase shifts, for small-distance displacements of the heavy particle. For such a limit of displacement, and within a distorted-wave Born approximation for initial and final states, the change in the scattering amplitude is expressed via trigonometric functions of scattering phase shifts at the Fermi energy. The numerical value of this change is analyzed in the framework of a self-consistent screening description for impurity-embedding in a paramagnetic electron gas. In order to discuss the so-called antiabatic limit on the same footing, a comparison with matrix elements obtained by the potential-gradient of an unscreened Coulomb field is given as well. The coupling of the tunneling proton to a free-electron-like electron gas is in the typical range obtained, by ultrasound experiments for different metallic glasses, from scattering rates for a Korringa-type relaxation process. That coupling is too weak to be in the range required for realization of the two-channel Kondo effect.