Abstract
Recent high-resolution Compton scattering experiments revealed a smearing of the Fermi break in nearly free electron metals which contradicts Luttinger's theorem of a sharp Fermi surface even for the interacting electron gas. Sternemann et al. [Phys. Rev. B 62, R7687 (2000)] explained this smearing by introducing a spectral function for the recoil electron with a finite lifetime due to final-state interactions. In contrast to the laborious GW approximation (GWA) used by these authors we calculate inelastic mean-free paths both for electron-hole and plasmon excitations which are of striking simplicity. The resulting lifetimes agree very well with those of GWA. In addition, we show that core excitation significantly shortens the lifetimes. The estimate of the influence of final-state interactions is extended to an analysis of (e,2e) experiments.
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