Electron-Plasmon scattering in chiral 1D systems with nonlinear dispersion

TL;DR

This paper studies high-energy electron behavior in chiral 1D systems, revealing a new electron-plasmon scattering mechanism that causes exponential decay of Green's functions and generates monochromatic density waves.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scattering process involving high-energy electrons and plasmons in chiral 1D systems with nonlinear dispersion, accounting for spectrum curvature and finite interaction range.

Findings

Exponential decay of Green's function at zero temperature due to electron-plasmon scattering

Generation of monochromatic sinusoidal density patterns behind high-energy electrons

Identification of a new scattering mechanism in nonlinear chiral 1D fermion systems

Abstract

We investigate systems of spinless one-dimensional chiral fermions realized, e.g., in the arms of electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometers, at high energies. Taking into account the curvature of the fermionic spectrum and a finite interaction range, we find a new scattering mechanism where high-energy electrons scatter off plasmons (density excitations). This leads to an exponential decay of the single-particle Green's function even at zero temperature with an energy-dependent rate. As a consequence of this electron-plasmon scattering channel, we observe the coherent excitation of a plasmon wave in the wake of a high-energy electron resulting in the buildup of a monochromatic sinusoidal density pattern.