Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2212.01475 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Polaron with quadratic electron-phonon interaction

Stefano Ragni, Thomas Hahn, Zhongjin Zhang, Nikolay V. Prokof'ev, Anatoly B. Kuklov, Serghei N. Klimin, Matthew Houtput, Boris V. Svistunov, Jacques Tempere, Naoto Nagaosa, Cesare Franchini, Andrei S. Mishchenko

Published Mar 22, 2023• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a numerically exact study of a polaron with quadratic coupling to the oscillator displacement, or ${X}^{2}$ polaron, using two alternative methodological developments. Our results cover both antiadiabatic and adiabatic regimes and the entire range of electron-phonon coupling ${g}_{2}$, from the system's stability threshold at attractive ${g}_{2}=\ensuremath{-}1$ to arbitrary strong repulsion at ${g}_{2}\ensuremath{\gg}1$. The key properties of ${X}^{2}$ polarons prove dramatically different from their linear counterparts. They (i) are insensitive even to large quadratic coupling except in the antiadiabatic limit near the threshold of instability at attraction, (ii) depend only on the adiabatic ratio but are insensitive to the electron dispersion and dimension of space, and (iii) feature weak lattice deformations even at the instability point. Our results are of direct relevance to the properties of electrons at low densities in polar materials, including recent proposals for their superconducting states.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.107.l121109

Related papers

Polarons with arbitrary nonlinear electron-phonon interaction

Stefano Ragni, Tomislav Miškić, Thomas Hahn +5 more

We develop an exact computational method based on numerical X propagators for solving polaron models with arbitrary nonlinear couplings of local vibration modes to the electron density and magnitude of the hopping amplitude. Our approach covers various polaron models, some of which were impossible to treat by any existing approximation-free techniques. Moreover, it remains efficient in the most relevant but computationally challenging regime of phonon frequencies much smaller than the electron bandwidth. As a case study, we consider the double-well type nonlinear model with quadratic ( g 2 < 0 ) and quartic ( g 4 > 0 ) interactions describing a broad class of technologically important materials, such as quantum paraelectric compounds and halide perovskites. We observe, depending on the model parameters, three qualitatively different regimes: (1) quantum interplay of quartic and quadratic interactions that suppresses effects of the quadratic coupling, (2) intermediate-coupling regime with exponential ∝ exp ( α g 2 Ω − 1 / 4 ) scaling of the quasiparticle weight and mass renormalization, and (3) strong-coupling asymptotic behavior.

arXiv:2506.17914•Physical Review Research•Nov 12, 2025•4 citations

Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger polarons in two dimensions

Chao Zhang, Nikolay V. Prokof'ev, Boris V. Svistunov

Polarons with different types of electron-phonon coupling have fundamentally different properties. When the dominant interaction is between the electron density and lattice displacement, the momentum of the ground state does not change and the polaron gets exponentially heavy at strong coupling. In contrast, one-dimensional Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (PSSH) polarons with interaction originating from displacement-modulated hopping feature a shift of the ground-state momentum to finite values and moderate values of effective mass as coupling is increased [D. J. J. Marchand et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 266605 (2010)]. Based on Diagrammatic Monte Carlo method, we investigate whether unusual properties of PSSH polarons depend on the type of the displacement-modulated hopping and to what degree they survive in higher dimension. We study two different PSSH models: with bosonic degrees of freedom residing on sites (model A) and bonds (model B) of the two-dimensional square lattice. For model A, we find that in both adiabatic and intermediate regimes, the momentum of the ground state experiences a continuous transition from zero to a finite value as a function of coupling strength. The transition is driven by quadratic instability of the dispersion function, implying that effective mass diverges at the critical point, and then decreases in an anisotropic fashion with increasing coupling. Unexpectedly, for model B, the momentum of the ground state always stays at zero and the effective mass increases monotonously with coupling. The increase is far from exponential and tends to level off at strong interaction, resulting in relatively light polarons. Having light polarons in the strong coupling regime is crucial for the bipolaron mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity [J. Sous, M. Chakraborty, R. V. Krems, and M. Berciu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 247001 (2018).]

arXiv:2104.14044•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jul 22, 2021•26 citations

Small polaron formation in many-particle states of the Hubbard-Holstein model: The one-dimensional case

Massimo Capone, M. Grilli, W. Stephan

We investigate polaron formation in a many-electron system in the presence of a local repulsion sufficiently strong to prevent local-bipolaron formation. Specifically, we consider a Hubbard-Holstein model of interacting electrons coupled to dispersionless phonons of frequency ω 0 . Numerically solving the model in a small one-dimensional cluster, we find that in the nearly adiabatic case ω 0 < t , the necessary and sufficient condition for the polaronic regime to occur is that the energy gain in the atomic ( i.e. , extremely localized) regime ε pol overcomes the energy of the purely electronic system ε el . In the antiadiabatic case, ω 0 > t , polaron formation is instead driven by the condition of a large ionic displacement g / ω 0 < 1 ( g being the electron-phonon coupling). Dynamical properties of the model in the weak and moderately strong coupling regimes are also analyzed.

arXiv:cond-mat/9902317•The European Physical Journal B•Jan 1, 1999•27 citations

Effect of electron-phonon interaction range on lattice polaron dynamics: A continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo study

Paul Spencer, John H. Samson, P. E. Kornilovitch +1 more

We present the numerically exact ground-state energy, effective mass, and isotope exponents of a one-dimensional lattice polaron, valid for any range of electron-phonon interaction, applying a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) technique in a wide range of coupling strength and adiabatic ratio. The QMC method is free from any systematic finite-size and finite-time-step errors. We compare our numerically exact results with analytical weak-coupling theory and with the strong-coupling $1∕\ensuremath{\lambda}$ expansion. We show that the exact results agree well with the canonical Fr\"ohlich and Holstein-Lang-Firsov theories in the weak and strong coupling limits, respectively, for any range of interaction. We find a strong dependence of the polaron dynamics on the range of interaction. An increased range of interaction has a similar effect to an increased (less adiabatic) phonon frequency: specifically, a reduction in the effective mass.

arXiv:cond-mat/0407250•Physical Review B•May 31, 2005•49 citations

Analytic method for quadratic polarons in nonparabolic bands

Serghei N. Klimin, Jacques Tempere, Matthew Houtput +4 more

Including the effect of lattice anharmonicity on electron-phonon interactions has recently garnered attention due to its role as a necessary and significant component in explaining various phenomena, including superconductivity, optical response, and temperature dependence of mobility. This study focuses on analytically treating the effects of anharmonic electron-phonon coupling on the polaron self-energy, combined with numerical Diagrammatic Monte Carlo (DiagMC) data. Specifically, we incorporate a quadratic interaction into the method of squeezed phonon states, which has proven effective for analytically calculating the polaron parameters. Additionally, we extend this method to nonparabolic finite-width conduction bands while maintaining the periodic translation symmetry of the system. Our results are compared with those obtained from Diagrammatic Monte Carlo, partially reported in a recent study [S. Ragni et al., Phys. Rev. B 107, L121109 (2023)], covering a wide range of coupling strengths for the nonlinear interaction. Remarkably, our analytic method predicts the same features as the Diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulation.

arXiv:2403.18019•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Aug 5, 2024•5 citations

Polaron features for long-range electron–phonon interaction

C. A. Perroni, V. Cataudella, G. De Filippis

The polaron features for long-range electron–phonon interaction are investigated by extending a variational approach previously proposed for the study of systems with local coupling. The ground state spectral weight, the average kinetic energy, the mean number of phonons, and the electron–lattice correlation function are discussed for a wide range of model parameters focusing on the adiabatic regime and comparing the results with the short-range case (Holstein model). A strong mixing of electronic and phononic degrees of freedom for small values of the electron–phonon coupling constant is found in the adiabatic case due to the long-range interaction. Finally a polaron ‘phase diagram’ is proposed.

arXiv:cond-mat/0402211•Journal of Physics Condensed Matter•Feb 20, 2004•21 citations
We present a numerically exact study of a polaron with quadratic coupling to the oscillator displacement, or X2{X}^{2}X2 polaron, using two alternative methodological developments. Our results cover both antiadiabatic and adiabatic regimes and the entire range of electron-phonon coupling g2{g}_{2}g2​, from the system's stability threshold at attractive g2=\ensuremath−1{g}_{2}=\ensuremath{-}1g2​=\ensuremath−1 to arbitrary strong repulsion at g2\ensuremath≫1{g}_{2}\ensuremath{\gg}1g2​\ensuremath≫1. The key properties of X2{X}^{2}X2 polarons prove dramatically different from their linear counterparts. They (i) are insensitive even to large quadratic coupling except in the antiadiabatic limit near the threshold of instability at attraction, (ii) depend only on the adiabatic ratio but are insensitive to the electron dispersion and dimension of space, and (iii) feature weak lattice deformations even at the instability point. Our results are of direct relevance to the properties of electrons at low densities in polar materials, including recent proposals for their superconducting states.
We develop an exact computational method based on numerical X propagators for solving polaron models with arbitrary nonlinear couplings of local vibration modes to the electron density and magnitude of the hopping amplitude. Our approach covers various polaron models, some of which were impossible to treat by any existing approximation-free techniques. Moreover, it remains efficient in the most relevant but computationally challenging regime of phonon frequencies much smaller than the electron bandwidth. As a case study, we consider the double-well type nonlinear model with quadratic ( g 2 < 0 ) and quartic ( g 4 > 0 ) interactions describing a broad class of technologically important materials, such as quantum paraelectric compounds and halide perovskites. We observe, depending on the model parameters, three qualitatively different regimes: (1) quantum interplay of quartic and quadratic interactions that suppresses effects of the quadratic coupling, (2) intermediate-coupling regime with exponential ∝ exp ( α g 2 Ω − 1 / 4 ) scaling of the quasiparticle weight and mass renormalization, and (3) strong-coupling asymptotic behavior.
Polarons with different types of electron-phonon coupling have fundamentally different properties. When the dominant interaction is between the electron density and lattice displacement, the momentum of the ground state does not change and the polaron gets exponentially heavy at strong coupling. In contrast, one-dimensional Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (PSSH) polarons with interaction originating from displacement-modulated hopping feature a shift of the ground-state momentum to finite values and moderate values of effective mass as coupling is increased [D. J. J. Marchand et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 266605 (2010)]. Based on Diagrammatic Monte Carlo method, we investigate whether unusual properties of PSSH polarons depend on the type of the displacement-modulated hopping and to what degree they survive in higher dimension. We study two different PSSH models: with bosonic degrees of freedom residing on sites (model A) and bonds (model B) of the two-dimensional square lattice. For model A, we find that in both adiabatic and intermediate regimes, the momentum of the ground state experiences a continuous transition from zero to a finite value as a function of coupling strength. The transition is driven by quadratic instability of the dispersion function, implying that effective mass diverges at the critical point, and then decreases in an anisotropic fashion with increasing coupling. Unexpectedly, for model B, the momentum of the ground state always stays at zero and the effective mass increases monotonously with coupling. The increase is far from exponential and tends to level off at strong interaction, resulting in relatively light polarons. Having light polarons in the strong coupling regime is crucial for the bipolaron mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity [J. Sous, M. Chakraborty, R. V. Krems, and M. Berciu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 247001 (2018).]
We investigate polaron formation in a many-electron system in the presence of a local repulsion sufficiently strong to prevent local-bipolaron formation. Specifically, we consider a Hubbard-Holstein model of interacting electrons coupled to dispersionless phonons of frequency ω 0 . Numerically solving the model in a small one-dimensional cluster, we find that in the nearly adiabatic case ω 0 < t , the necessary and sufficient condition for the polaronic regime to occur is that the energy gain in the atomic ( i.e. , extremely localized) regime ε pol overcomes the energy of the purely electronic system ε el . In the antiadiabatic case, ω 0 > t , polaron formation is instead driven by the condition of a large ionic displacement g / ω 0 < 1 ( g being the electron-phonon coupling). Dynamical properties of the model in the weak and moderately strong coupling regimes are also analyzed.
We present the numerically exact ground-state energy, effective mass, and isotope exponents of a one-dimensional lattice polaron, valid for any range of electron-phonon interaction, applying a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) technique in a wide range of coupling strength and adiabatic ratio. The QMC method is free from any systematic finite-size and finite-time-step errors. We compare our numerically exact results with analytical weak-coupling theory and with the strong-coupling $1∕\ensuremath{\lambda}$ expansion. We show that the exact results agree well with the canonical Fr\"ohlich and Holstein-Lang-Firsov theories in the weak and strong coupling limits, respectively, for any range of interaction. We find a strong dependence of the polaron dynamics on the range of interaction. An increased range of interaction has a similar effect to an increased (less adiabatic) phonon frequency: specifically, a reduction in the effective mass.
Including the effect of lattice anharmonicity on electron-phonon interactions has recently garnered attention due to its role as a necessary and significant component in explaining various phenomena, including superconductivity, optical response, and temperature dependence of mobility. This study focuses on analytically treating the effects of anharmonic electron-phonon coupling on the polaron self-energy, combined with numerical Diagrammatic Monte Carlo (DiagMC) data. Specifically, we incorporate a quadratic interaction into the method of squeezed phonon states, which has proven effective for analytically calculating the polaron parameters. Additionally, we extend this method to nonparabolic finite-width conduction bands while maintaining the periodic translation symmetry of the system. Our results are compared with those obtained from Diagrammatic Monte Carlo, partially reported in a recent study [S. Ragni et al., Phys. Rev. B 107, L121109 (2023)], covering a wide range of coupling strengths for the nonlinear interaction. Remarkably, our analytic method predicts the same features as the Diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulation.
The polaron features for long-range electron–phonon interaction are investigated by extending a variational approach previously proposed for the study of systems with local coupling. The ground state spectral weight, the average kinetic energy, the mean number of phonons, and the electron–lattice correlation function are discussed for a wide range of model parameters focusing on the adiabatic regime and comparing the results with the short-range case (Holstein model). A strong mixing of electronic and phononic degrees of freedom for small values of the electron–phonon coupling constant is found in the adiabatic case due to the long-range interaction. Finally a polaron ‘phase diagram’ is proposed.