Lifetime of a quasiparticle in an electron liquid

TL;DR

This paper calculates the inelastic lifetime of electron quasiparticles in low-temperature electron liquids, emphasizing the importance of exchange processes and clarifying discrepancies in previous theoretical results.

Contribution

It provides an analytical calculation of exchange effects on quasiparticle lifetime in 2D and 3D electron liquids, resolving previous disagreements.

Findings

Exchange processes significantly affect quasiparticle lifetime in 2D.

Analytical derivation clarifies discrepancies in earlier studies.

Exchange effects are important even at high electron densities.

Abstract

We calculate the inelastic lifetime of an electron quasiparticle due to Coulomb interactions in an electron liquid at low (or zero) temperature in two and three spatial dimensions. The contribution of "exchange" processes is calculated analytically and is shown to be non-negligible even in the high-density limit in two dimensions. Exchange effects must therefore be taken into account in a quantitive comparison between theory and experiment. The derivation in the two-dimensional case is presented in detail in order to clarify the origin of the disagreements that exist among the results of previous calculations, even the ones that only took into account "direct" processes.