Path integrals in the physics of lattice polarons

A path-integral approach to lattice polarons is developed. The method is based on exact analytical elimination of phonons and subsequent Monte Carlo simulation of self-interacting fermions. The analytical basis of the method is presented with emphasis on visualization of polaron effects, which path integrals provide. Numerical results on the polaron energy, mass, spectrum and density of states are given for short-range and long-range electron-phonon interactions. It is shown that certain long-range interactions significantly reduce the polaron mass, and anisotropic interactions enhance polaron anisotropy. The isotope effect on the polaron mass and spectrum is discussed. A path-integral approach to the Jahn-Teller polaron is developed. Extensions of the method to lattice bipolarons and to more complex polaron models are outlined.Comment: 40 pages, 12 figures, to be published in "Polarons in Advanced Materials" ed. A.S. Alexandrov (Canopus Books, 2007

Light and stable triplet bipolarons on square and triangular lattices

We compute the properties of singlet and triplet bipolarons on two-dimensional lattices using the continuous time quantum Monte Carlo algorithm. Properties of the bipolaron including the total energy, inverse mass, bipolaron radius and number of phonons associated with the bipolaron demonstrate the qualitative difference between models of electron phonon interaction with long-range interaction (screened Fr\"ohlich) and those with purely local (Holstein) interaction. A major result of our survey of the parameter space is the existence of extra-light hybrid singlet bipolarons consisting of an on-site and an off-site component on both square and triangular lattices. We also compute triplet properties of the bipolarons and the pair dispersion. For pair momenta on the edge of the Brillouin zone of the triangular lattice, we find that triplet states are more stable than singlets

Stability of three-fermion clusters with finite range of attraction

Three quantum particles with on-site repulsion and nearest-neighbour attraction on a one-dimensional lattice are considered. The three-body Schroedinger equation is reduced to a set of single-variable integral equations. Energies of three-particle bound complexes (trions) are found from self-consistency of the approximating matrix equation. In the case of spin-1/2 fermions, the ground state trion energy, the excited state energies, the trion spectra and stability regions are obtained for total spins S = 1/2 and S = 3/2. In the S = 1/2 sector, a narrow but finite parameter region is identified where the ground state consists of a stable fermion pair and an unbound fermion. Also presented is the reference case of spin-0 bosons.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, plus 3 pages of supplementary materia

Singlet and triplet bipolarons on the triangular lattice

We study the Coulomb-Fr\"ohlich model on a triangular lattice, looking in particular at states with angular momentum. We examine a simplified model of crab bipolarons with angular momentum by projecting onto the low energy subspace of the Coulomb-Fr\"ohlich model with large phonon frequency. Such a projection is consistent with large long-range electron-phonon coupling and large repulsive Hubbard $U$. Significant differences are found between the band structure of singlet and triplet states: The triplet state (which has a flat band) is found to be significantly heavier than the singlet state (which has mass similar to the polaron). We test whether the heavier triplet states persist to lower electron-phonon coupling using continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation. The triplet state is both heavier and larger, demonstrating that the heavier mass is due to quantum interference effects on the motion. We also find that retardation effects reduce the differences between singlet and triplet states, since they reintroduce second order terms in the hopping into the inverse effective mass.Comment: Proceedings of SNS 200

Isotope effect on the electron band structure of doped insulators

Applying a continuous-time quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm we calculate the exact coherent band dispersion and the density of states of a two dimensional lattice polaron in the region of parameters where any approximation might fail. We find an isotope effect on the band structure, which is different for different wave-vectors of the Brillouin zone and depends on the radius and strength of the electron-phonon interaction. An isotope effect on the electron spectral function is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure