A non-perturbative study of the interplay between electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb interaction in undoped graphene

TL;DR

This paper presents a non-perturbative quantum-field-theoretic analysis of how electron-phonon and Coulomb interactions influence the properties of undoped graphene, revealing their combined effects on Dirac fermion velocity.

Contribution

It derives and solves a self-closed Dyson-Schwinger equation for the full fermion propagator considering both interactions simultaneously, which is a novel non-perturbative approach.

Findings

Renormalized Dirac fermion velocity shows logarithmic momentum dependence.

Energy dependence of velocity is non-monotonic due to interactions.

Electron-phonon interaction dominates the energy dependence of velocity.

Abstract

In condensed-matter systems, electrons are subjected to two different interactions under certain conditions. Even if both interactions are weak, it is difficult to perform perturbative calculations due to the complexity caused by the interplay of two interactions. When one or two interactions are strong, ordinary perturbation theory may become invalid. Here we consider undoped graphene as an example and provide a non-perturbative quantum-field-theoretic analysis of the interplay of electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb interaction. We treat these two interactions on an equal footing and derive the exact Dyson-Schwinger integral equation of the full Dirac-fermion propagator. This equation depends on several complicated correlation functions and thus is difficult to handle. Fortunately, we find that these correlation functions obey a number of exact identities, which allows us to prove that the Dyson-Schwinger equation of the full fermion propagator is self-closed. After solving this self-closed equation, we obtain the renormalized velocity of Dirac fermions and show that its energy (momentum) dependence is dominantly determined by the electron-phonon (Coulomb) interaction. In particular, the renormalized velocity exhibits a logarithmic momentum dependence and a non-monotonic energy dependence.