Non Local Electron-Phonon Correlations in a Dispersive Holstein Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dispersive optical phonons affect long-range electron-phonon correlations in the Holstein model, revealing that these correlations weaken the effective coupling and influence thermodynamic properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze electron-phonon interactions with dispersive phonons using path integrals, providing new insights into thermodynamic effects and heat capacity behavior.

Findings

Dispersive phonons reduce effective electron-phonon coupling.

Holstein phonon heat capacity remains strictly harmonic.

Electron hopping significantly impacts low-temperature heat capacity.

Abstract

Due to the dispersion of optical phonons, long range electron-phonon correlations renormalize downwards the coupling strength in the Holstein model. We evaluate the size of this effect both in a linear chain and in a square lattice for a time averaged {\it e-ph} potential, where the time variable is introduced according to the Matsubara formalism. Mapping the Holstein Hamiltonian onto the time scale we derive the perturbing source current which appears to be non time retarded. This property permits to disentangle phonon and electron coordinates in the general path integral for an electron coupled to dispersive phonons. While the phonon paths can be integrated out analytically, the electron path integrations have to be done numerically. The equilibrium thermodynamic properties of the model are thus obtained as a function of the electron hopping value and of the phonon spectrum parameters. We derive the {\it e-ph} corrections to the phonon free energy and show that its temperature derivatives do not depend on the {\it e-ph} effective coupling hence, the Holstein phonon heat capacity is strictly harmonic. A significant upturn in the low temperature total heat capacity over $T$ ratio is attributed to the electron hopping which largely contributes to the action.