CRC Press eBooks

The Fröhlich Hamiltonian

Ashok Chatterjee, Soma Mukhopadhyay

Published Oct 9, 2018• 0 citations

Abstract

The picture of the polaron conceived by Frohlich is again that of a complex consisting of an electron and the lattice distortion induced by it, but unlike the case of Landau-Pekar polaron, the complex can be found anywhere in the lattice. The Frohlich model considers a low-lying or a slow electron so that the de Broglies wavelength is much larger than the lattice constant, and in this limit, the structure of the lattice becomes unimportant and lattice can be considered to be a continuum. In the Frohlich polaron model, one considers an extra slow electron in the conduction band of the crystal that interacts with the fields associated with the aforementioned polarization vectors to give rise to the electron-phonon Hamiltonian relevant for the polaron problem. Because the electron is low-lying, it will have a large de Broglie wave length associated with it.

DOI: 10.1201/9781315118635-2

Related papers

A generalized functional approach to the polaron problem

Sergey Gorshkov, Victor Dmitrievich Lakhno, K. Rodriges +1 more

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.

Soviet physics. DokladyOct 1, 19840 citations

DYNAMICS OF A STRONGLY COUPLED POLARON

Rupert L. Frank, Benjamin Schlein

We study the dynamics of large polarons described by the Fröhlich Hamiltonian in the limit of strong coupling. The initial conditions are (perturbations of) product states of an electron wave function and a phonon coherent state, as suggested by Pekar. We show that, to leading order on the natural time scale of the problem, the phonon field is stationary and the electron moves according to an effective linear Schrödinger equation.

Aug 17, 201620 citations

Strong-Coupling Solutions of the Fröhlich Hamiltonian

Ashok Chatterjee, Soma Mukhopadhyay

This chapter describes some of the most important theories of the strong-coupling polaron. The nature of polarons in the strong-coupling limit is in some sense qualitatively different from the weak or intermediate-coupling polaron—the localization of a polaron being a case in point. Though a qualitative picture of a strong-coupling polaron is easy to visualize as opposed to the weak-coupling polaron, the mathematical formulation of a strongly coupled polaron is rather a difficult problem from the quantum mechanical point of view. In fact, the exact polaron energy in the weak-coupling limit can be obtained from the Frohlich Hamiltonian analytically, while the same is not possible in the strong-coupling limit. In the strong-coupling case, the electron velocity is much larger than the phonon frequency and therefore electron can follow the ion motion adiabatically. The adiabatic expansion of the polaron energy in the strong-coupling regime was reported by Bogoliubov and Tiablikov.

CRC Press eBooksOct 9, 20180 citations

Weak and Intermediate Coupling Solutions of the Fröhlich Hamiltonian

Ashok Chatterjee, Soma Mukhopadhyay

After deriving the quantum mechanical model polaron Hamiltonian, Frohlich, Pelzar and Zineau presented a perturbative solution to the problem. This chapter examines the perturbation theory from Frohlich et al. and presents other important weak and intermediate coupling polaron theories. It discusses several polaronic properties like average number of virtual phonons in the polaron cloud, electron life-time, lattice polarization potential using the first-order perturbative wave function and obtained the polaron energy and the polaron mass using the second-order Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory (RSPT). The second-order RSPT is known to have a limited range of validity. In the one-phonon Tamm-Dancoff approximation, the exact ground state energy appears in the denominator instead of the unperturbed energy that appears in RSPT. The chapter also discusses the work of Lee and Pines who have used the Tomonaga's approximation made in the formulation of the meson-theoretic problem to the case of polaron.

CRC Press eBooksOct 9, 20180 citations

On lower bound estimates for the energy spectrum of the Fröhlich polaron model

Andrey Vladimirovich Soldatov

Method of intermediate problems was applied to investigation of the energy spectrum of the Fröhlich polaron model. It was shown that various infinite sequences of non-decreasing improvable lower bound estimates for the low-lying branch of the slow-moving polaron excitation energy spectral curve adjacent to the ground state energy can be derived for arbitrary values of the electron-phonon interaction constant. These bound estimates allow for explicit numerical evaluation at all orders. In conjunction with numerous well-known upper bound estimates for the energy spectral curve of the Fröhlich polaron as a function of the interaction constant and the polaron total momentum, the aforesaid improvable lower bound estimates might provide one with virtually precise magnitude for the energy of the slow-moving polaron. Possible generalization to the case of the Fröhlich polaron in external magnetic field is outlined.

Physics of Particles and NucleiNov 25, 20100 citations

A Variational Calculation of the Polaron Self-Energy and Effective Mass.

Benjamin U. Stewart

An approximate calculation is made of the polaron self-energy and effective mass as defined by Frohlich.The approach taken is a variational one based on an ex tended version of Hohler's ansatz in which the trial state function employed is an exact eigenfunction of the total wave vector of the polaron.The effective mass obtained simulates the Feynmann-Schultz result while the corresponding polaron self-energy is fairly accurate but inferior to the result of Feynman and Schultz.CONTENTS Chapters « -« T -| > £ ( l ^' (1'2) n in which n is the optical refractive index, k is the static dielectric constant, e is the electronic charge and 2 t\& is Plank's constant.The limit S->°° is to be taken with lim I = -~ S-*oo v 8tt d 3v .(1,3) A natural unit system is employed in which 2^=o)=2m=l.The first term in the Hamiltonian is the quantum mechanical operator corresponding to the kinetic energy of the electron.The second term represents the energy of the polarization field resulting from the long wave length longitudinal optical crystal modes in the absence of interaction with the electron.The last term represents the energy of interaction between the electron and the phonons.The name "polaron" has been given to the entity consisting of the Bloch conduction electron together with its accompanying nonradiative polarization field.Accordingly Frohlich defines the polaron self-energy, EQ (a), and the (ground-state) polaron effective mass, y(a), by the expansion EQ (a,ic) = Ec (a) + k 2/y(a) + 0(k4 ), (1,4)

Civil War Book ReviewJan 1, 19710 citations