We study the nature of the ground state of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model for electron-phonon interactions in one dimension in the half-filled-band case. We consider the cases of spinless electrons (
n=1) and spin-\textonehalf{} electrons (
n=2), and discuss the stability of the Peierls-dimerized ground state as a function of the ionic mass and electron-phonon coupling constant. We first consider the zero-mass limit of the theory and extend our results to finite mass using renormalization-group arguments. For spinless electrons, it is found that quantum fluctuations destroy the long-range dimerization order for the small electron-phonon coupling constant if the ionic mass is finite. For spin-\textonehalf{} electrons, the system is dimerized for an arbitrary coupling constant and phonon frequency. Renormalization-group trajectories show that the low-energy behavior of the system is governed by the zero-mass limit of the theory, an
n-component Gross-Neveu model. Monte Carlo simulations are performed for the model at finite phonon frequencies, and the results are compared with the static limit result. We study in particular the set of parameters appropriate for polyacetylene and find a 15% reduction in the phonon order parameter due to fluctuations of the phonon field. A finite-size scaling analysis of the numerical data for the cases
n=1and2 is performed, which confirms the results obtained from the renormalization-group analysis.
We study polarons in the one-dimensional Bond-Peierls electron-phonon model in which phonons on bonds of a lattice modulate the hopping of electrons between lattice sites and contrast the results to those known for the breathing-mode Peierls problem. By inspecting the atomic limit, we show that polaronic dressing and mass enhancement of Bond-Peierls polarons depend on the momentum dependence of the phonons. For dispersionless phonons, Bond-Peierls polarons are perfectly localized in the atomic limit, unlike their breathing-mode counterparts because the carrier creates a string of phonon excitations that can only be annihilated via processes that retrace the carrier to its original site. However, inclusion of phonon dispersion leads to a nondivergent polaron mass even in the atomic limit and depending on the form of the phonon dispersion may lead to a transition to a non-zero-momentum ground state akin to that found in the breathing-mode Peierls model.
We study polarons in the one-dimensional Bond-Peierls electron-phonon model, in which phonons on bonds of a lattice modulate the hopping of electrons between lattice sites, and contrast the results to those known for the Breathing-Mode Peierls problem. By inspecting the atomic limit, we show that polaronic dressing and mass enhancement of Bond-Peierls polarons depend on the momentum dependence of the phonons. For dispersionless phonons, Bond-Peierls polarons are perfectly localized in the atomic limit, unlike their Breathing-mode counterparts, because the carrier creates a string of phonon excitations that can only be annihilated via processes that retrace the carrier to its original site. However, inclusion of phonon dispersion leads to a non-divergent polaron mass even in the atomic limit and depending on the form of the phonon dispersion may lead to a transition to a non-zero-momentum ground state akin to that found in the Breathing-mode Peierls model.