A Green's-function equation-of-motion analysis of the large polaron is presented. Existing theories for the ground-state energy and effective mass are obtained from a nondiagonal form of the Fock approximation to the electron self-energy. A connection between the usual canonical transformation techniques and the Green's-function approach is given explicitly. The effects of vertex corrections and translational invariance are examined in the context of these results.
A Green's-function equation-of-motion analysis of the large polaron is presented. Existing theories for the ground-state energy and effective mass are obtained from a nondiagonal form of the Fock approximation to the electron self-energy. A connection between the usual canonical transformation techniques and the Green's-function approach is given explicitly. The effects of vertex corrections and translational invariance are examined in the context of these results.
We have developed a new equation of motion Green's function theory for the large polaron, that is completely nonperturbative in origin, and therefore gives a unified treatment of the polaron ground state energy for all interaction strengths. The theory also incorporates translational invariance rigorously, a priori. We find the following new results. (a) Previous theories that are valid for all coupling strengths are based on a nonperturbative summation of infinite subsets of entire diagrams (equations of motion), rather than on recoil parts of all diagrams. We can thus recover lowest order results of Feynman for example, via a translationally noninvariant form of the Fock approximation, which resembles that reported in a previous work. (b) The total ground state energy we obtain in the strong coupling limit is E0 = −0.426α2 to lowest order in the coupling constant α, a result substantially below that of previous calculations, E0 = −0.106α2 (using gaussian trial functions in both cases). Our result is also below the lower bound of Lieb and Yamazaki, although we show in a following paper that our result is an upper bound. (c) The origin of the difference of our results compared to that of other strong coupling theories is several fold, and will be presented in detail in subsequent papers. However, the essence of the difference is that the phonons in the field, via their interaction with the electron, assume the role of independent degrees of freedom, in the limit of an infinite number of phonons. We then have a field theoretic problem with an infinite number of degrees of freedom which can exhibit a totally different physical behavior compared to one with a finite number of degrees of freedom. This aspect of the problem has not been given explicit recognition in all other theories, including that of Lieb and Yamazaki.
The formalism of bilocal field theory was applied to the calculation of the ground-state energy and the effective mass of the large polaron. This calculation illustrates the bilocal field method using a relatively realistic model of a physical system. In bilocal theory the fermion field is dependent on two spatial points (nonrelativistically). Fermi particles can then be described in terms of a center of mass and internal wave function, and field operators can be expanded in functions related to the exact one-fermion Green's function, thereby eliminating self-energy terms from the S matrix and related operators. Similarities and differences between calculated large-polaron properties using the bilocal treatment and the customary local treatment are discussed. In particular, it is found that, within the approximations made, the bilocal and local methods give the same leading term in powers of the coupling constant for the ground-state energy and effective mass in the strong-coupling limit. For weak coupling, the bilocal energy is larger (more positive) and the effective mass smaller than in the local case due to an additional kinetic energy of internal motion.
It is well known that two qualitatively different pictures arise in the description of the motion of an electron in an ionic crystal. In the first case, when the electron interacts weakly with the ionic lattice of the crystal, its motion is the same as the motion of a free band electron whose energy is shifted downward with respect to the bottom of the conduction band, and the effective mass is replaced by the renormalized mass (weak-coupling polaron). In the other limiting case, when the electron interacts strongly with the ionic crystal, an entire series of different self-consistent states of the electron and lattice, each of which has its own effective mass and radius (strong-coupling polaron), arises. Although the motion of an electron in an ionic crystal is described in both limiting cases with the help of the Pekar-Frohlich Hamiltonian, each case requires its own special methods of analysis. Thus, for example, in the strong-coupling theory a special form of adiabatic perturbation theory has been developed in which the trans-lational degeneracy is removed before the perturbation expansion is made. It has been possible to relate both descriptions within the framework of Feynman's varia-tional approach, in which a smooth upper bound was obtained for the energy of the ground state of the polaron for all values of the electron-phonon coupling constant a (see Fig. 1). We call attention in this connection to Ref. 6, where the thermodynamic properties are calculated with the help of a special method for performing the calculations and for finding averages of T-products. The approach developed there is more convenient for performing specific calculations than is the use of path integrals. It seems to us that it has definite advantages in the construction of general proofs concerning the choice of the approximating Hamiltonians (this is illustrated in Ref. 6 for the example of the linear Bogolyubov model), in the investigation of the characteristics of the behavior of a polaron in external fields, etc.
Abstract A general method for studying the properties of free and bound polarons at arbitrary strength of electron‐phonon coupling is given from a unified point of view by first performing a suitable canonical transformation of the electron and phonon field operators and subsequently applying the double‐time Green's function formalism to the transformed polaron‐phonon Hamiltonian. Calculating the one‐polaron Green's function in the lowest approximation and employing the variational principle for the free energy, a pair of coupled differential equations is derived for the effective wave function and a trial function as introduced by the canonical transformation. From these equations, the weakly excited polaron energy levels at low temperatures can be found in the entire range of coupling constants when external fields are present. In this paper, detailed calculations are confined to the optical‐polaron problem in the zero‐field case. Intermediate‐ and strong‐coupling formulas for temperature‐dependent polaron self‐energy and effective mass are given. The strong‐coupling regime appears to increase with temperature.
Abstract The dielectric polaron is treated using the Gross unitary transform and the Matz‐Green's function techniques. A two‐particle Feynman‐like model is introduced to compare these methods with the best Feynman path integral formulation. It is found that the introduction of a second particle in the model problem does not improve on the usual result for a one‐particle model. However, a comparison of these different approaches leads to the conclusion that no vertex contributions are contained in the Feynman approximation. It is also concluded that it is the very special treatment of the kinetic energy of the electron in Feynman's theory that makes his results lower in energy.
The structure of the translationally-invariant diagrammatic perturbation theory for one polaron is examined on the 1D discrete lattice described by the Holstein Hamiltonian. The latter is characterized by the electron hopping t, the phonon frequency ω_0 and the electron-phonon coupling g. It is shown that the polaron localization (and translation) properties are contained in the electron propagator of one electron, intermittently added to the lattice, and/or in the phonon correlation function with one electron permanently present in the lattice. The order by order analysis in g/ω_0 shows that the expansion of the irreducible electron self-energy corresponds to the expansion of the phonon correlation function, rather than of the irreducible phonon self-energy. The range of polaronic correlations is determined in this way. For small t/ω_0 and already to the second order g/ω_0 small, the electron-lattice correlation becomes very short ranged, i.e. the polaron is already localized to one site, although the overall translational symmetry remains unbroken. For large t/ω0, the second order result is meaningful up to large g/ω_0 ≈ (t/ω_0)^\frac14, where it becomes degenerate with the results for the large adiabatic Holstein polaron. This suggests that the translationally invariant perturbation theory crosses then over smoothly, without symmetry breaking, into the adiabatic, continuous quantum limit, as rigorously demonstrated in the companion paper. Thus the quantum theory of the large adiabatic Holstein polaron provides a simple, instructive example of the quantum crossover which replaces the behavior in the quantum critical point.