Abstract
In order to investigate the effects of the fermion or boson statistics on the thermodynamics of systems with a finite number of interacting identical particles, a harmonic model was recently introduced which is quantum mechanically exactly soluble with path integral techniques. This model provides the trial action for a variational or perturbative treatment of realistic systems, and was tested extensively by comparison with experimantal results in Bose-Einstein condensates. In the present project the model will be extended to take also the electron-phonon interaction into account, resulting in a trial action for the treatment of a gas of electrons in a phonon bath. This model will provide a generalization to a polaron gas of Feynman's well-known polaron treatment.
Researcher(s)
Research team(s)
Project type(s)