Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 38, No. 5, May 2001, pp.

597598

Lifetime of 2-Dimensional Electrons

Taturo Fukuda and Tadashi Toyoda
Department of Physics, Tokai University, Kitakaname 1117, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa 259-1292, Japan (Received 9 November 2000) We show that the RPA is not adequate to calculate the eect of the Coulomb interaction on the lifetimes of the quasi-particles in the 2-dimensional electrons recently observed by Murphy et al. [Phys. Rev. B 52, 14825 (1995)].

I. INTRODUCTION Recently, Murphy et al. [1] made a direct measurement of inelastic broadening in 2-dimensional electrons. Their experiment has opened a new possibility to investigate the quasi-particles in an interacting electron gas. The concepts of quasi-particles and elementary excitations are fundamental to understand modern condensed matter theory. A microscopic model of a quantum manybody system, such as an electron gas, is given by a Hamiltonian written in terms of the second quantized Schrdinger eld operators [2,3]. o Although for conventional perturbative computations, the interaction picture is relevant, the Heisenberg picture is best suited for theoretical considerations. In the canonical quantization formulation, the eld operators in the Heisenberg picture are the basic dynamical variables that describe the physics of the system. If a model Hamiltonian is given in terms of the second quatized eld operator and its hermitian conjugate , then the state | corresponds to a quasi-particle state, where | is the ground state. If there is a many-particle interaction, this quasi-particle state is not an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian, and it will spread during the time evolution. Hence, we can dene the lifetime. From a practical point of view, it is convenient to consider the one-particle Greens function to discuss the properties of quasi-particles. The poles of the oneparticle Greens function give the lifetime and the energy dispersion. Similarly, the concept of elementary excitations can be dened in terms of the two-particle Greens functions which are related to various response functions. Since the beginning of modern quantum many-body theory initiated by Matsubaras temperature Greens function formalism [4], most important works have been concerned with calculations of one-particle Greens functions and two-particle Greens functions. It has been

shown that these two classes of Greens functions satisfy rigorous relations reecting the symmetry properties of the model Hamiltonian [5]. In this work, we discuss the signicance of the relations, i.e., the nitetemperature generalized Ward-Takahashi relations (FTGWTR), in the calculation of the quasi-particle lifetime in an interacting 2-dimensional electron gas.

II. FTGWTR As the model Hamiltonian for an interacting 2dimensional electron gas, we assume the standard form [6] H = dx
(x){ ( ) } (x) + Hint

(1) (2)

H0 + Hint ,

where and are the kinetic energy dierential operator and the electron chemical potential, respectively. The interaction term is assumed to commute with the electron number-density operator (x) = (x) (x), (x), Hint = 0.

(3)

In Ref. 5, the following operator relation has been derived: T { (x) (x) (x ) (x )} = ( )

T {[ (x), (x )] (x )}
T { (x )[ , (x )]} T { (x )[ , (x )]}

+ ( ) + ( ) 1 h
-597-

E-mail: toyoda@keyaki.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp

dx (x x)[ ( ) (

)]

-598 T { (x , ) (x, ) (x ) (x )}, (4)

Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 38, No. 5, May 2001

the proper vertex part, which is the kernel of the integral equation for the two-particle Greens function.

where the eld operators are in the -Heisenberg picture [5] and the notation x (x, ) has been used. The quantum statistical grand canonical ensemble average of this relation yields the FTGWTR

dx

(x x)[

1 + { ( ) ( h

III. LIFETIME OF A QUASI-PARTICLE AND FTGWTR The lifetime of the quasi-particle in the twodimensional electrons is given by the imaginary part of the proper self-energy, which must satisfy the FTGWTR, Eq. (10). Although the equation is not sucient to obtain the imaginary part of the proper self-energy in general, by making use of Landaus Fermi liquid Ansatz, the one-particle Greens function on the right-hand side of Eq. (10) can be replaced by a delta function [6]. Then, the equation gives the imaginary part of the proper selfenergy if the proper vertex part is given. The eects of the electron-electron Coulomb interaction is expressed by the proper vertex part R . The most well-known approximation to deal with the long-range Coulomb interaction is the RPA [3]. However, if one uses the proper vertex part that gives the RPA, then the right-hand side of Eq. (10) vanishes [6]. That is, if the RPA scheme is adopted to account for the electron-electron Coulomb interaction, the imaginary part of the proper self-energy vanishes. Therefore, it is necessary to go beyond the RPA to calculate the eects of the Coulomb interaction on the electron quasi-particle lifetime. Since the pioneering work by Guiliani and Quinn [7,8], interesting theoretical works on the 2-dim electron lifetime have been published [9,10]. However, the problem with the RPA has not been fully investigated. In the calculation of transport coecients, such as the electric conductivity, resolution of the above-mentioned problem with the RPA and the imaginary part of the proper selfenergy would be crucial to obtain correct results. REFERENCES
[1] S. Q. Murphy, J. P. Eisenstein, L. N. Pfeier and K. W. West, Phys. Rev. B 52, 14825 (1995). [2] A. A. Abrikosov, L. P. Gorkov and I. Ye. Dzyaloshinskii, Quantum Field Theoretical Methods in Statistical Physics, 2nd Edition (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1965). [3] A. L. Fetter and J. D. Walecka, Quantum Theory of Many-Particle Systems (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971). [4] T. Matsubara, Progr. Theor. Phys. 14, 351 (1955). [5] T. Toyoda, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 173, 226 (1987). [6] T. Toyoda, Phys. Rev. A 39, 2659 (1989). [7] G. F. Guiliani and J. J. Quinn, Phys. Rev. 26, 4421 (1982). [8] J. J. Quinn and R. A. Ferrel, Phys. Rev. 112, 812 (1958). [9] L. Zheng and S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. 53, 9964 (1996). [10] T. Jungwirth and A. H. MacDonald, Phys. Rev. 53, 7403 (1996).

)}]

lim G: (x, x ; x , x ) =

[ (x x )G (x, x ) (x x )G (x , x)]. (5)

Note that no approximation has been used in the above derivation. Introducing the Fourier transforms of the Greens functions and notation
p

1 h

1 (2)2

dp,

(6)

we can write the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the vertex part, (k, p + q; p, k + q) = (k, p + q; p, k + q) 1 (k, k + q; k , k + q)G(k ) + h k G(k + q)(k , p + q; p, k + q).

(7)

This equation denes the proper vertex part . Expressing the two-particle Greens function in terms of the vertex function and using the Bethe-Salpeter equation, we can write the FTGWTR in Eq. (5) as a relation between the proper self-energy and the proper vertex part [5]: (p + q) (p) = 1 h {G(k + q) G(k)}
k

(k, p + q; p, k + q). (8) The nite temperature Matsubara Greens functions can be analytically continued to the real-time retarded Greens functions. After analytical continuation, the FTGWTR, Eq. (8), yields ImR (p, 0) = 1 h dq P (2)2

d[f () + f ()]

Im[GR (q, )]Im[R (q p, )], (9) where f () = 1

h e

+1

and

f () =

1
h e

(10)

have been dened and R is the analytical continuation of the proper vertex function. Equation (9) relates the proper self-energy, which is the kernel of the integral equation for the one-particle Greens function, to