The "unusual" isotope shift in high-temperature superconductors can be explained by the usual theory of the electron-phonon interaction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the unusual isotope shift observed in high-temperature superconductors can be explained by traditional electron-phonon interaction theory, aligning experimental ARPES results with established models.

Contribution

It shows that the recent ARPES findings on isotope shifts are consistent with classical electron-phonon interaction theory, providing a semi-quantitative explanation.

Findings

ARPEs results can be explained by EPI theory

Quantitative analysis requires detailed EPI momentum dependence

Coulomb and impurity effects are important for spectra

Abstract

We show that recent ARPES results on the "unusual" oxygen isotope shift in the real part of the self-energy in the optimally doped $Bi2212$ samples can be qualitatively (and semi-quantitatively) explained by the theory of the electron-phonon interaction (EPI) elaborated few decades ago. However, for a quantitative analysis of the ARPES spectra it is necessary to know the momentum dependence of the EPI, the Coulomb contribution at high energies and the background due to impurities and defects.