Quantum lattice fluctuations in a model electron–phonon system

Abstract

An analytical approach, based on the unitary transformation method, has been developed to study the effect of quantum lattice fluctuations on the ground state of a model electron–phonon system. To study nonadiabatic case, the Green's function method is used to implement the perturbation treatment. The phase diagram and the density of states of fermions are obtained. We show that when electron–phonon coupling constant α 2/ K decreases or phonon frequency ω π increases the lattice dimerization and the gap in the fermion spectrum decrease gradually. At some critical value the system becomes gapless and the lattice dimerization disappears. The inverse-square-root singularity of the density of states at the gap edge in the adiabatic case disappears because of the nonadiabatic effect, which is consistent with the measurement of optical conductivity in quasi-one-dimensional systems.