Polarons: new results in an old problem
Oct. 25, 2023 (Wed.) at 1:30PM (ET)
University of British Columbia
Solid-state physics textbooks teach us that polarons are rather boring quasi-particles whose effective mass increases if the strength of the coupling to phonons is increased, as does the strength of the effective phonon-mediated attraction between polarons. I will argue that while this view is valid for one class of particle-phonon couplings, there is a second class of physical models with a much more interesting behavior. For these, light polarons are possible even at very strong couplings, re-opening the discussion on the possibility of high-Tc superconductivity mediated by phonons. Time permitting, I will also discuss some recent progress in other still open questions, such as the properties of polarons far away from the Migdal limit.