Dispersion and lineshape of plasmon satellites in one, two and three dimensions

Abstract

Using state-of-the-art many-body Green’s function calculations based on the “GW plus cumulant” approach, we analyze the properties of plasmon satellites in the electron spectral function resulting from electron-plasmon interactions in one-, two- and three-dimensional systems. Specifically, we show how their dispersion relation, lineshape and linewidth are related to the properties of the constituent electrons and plasmons. To gain insight into the many-body processes giving rise to the formation of plasmon satellites, we connect the “GW plus cumulant” approach to a many-body wavefunction picture of electron-plasmon interactions and introduce the coupling-strength weighted electron-plasmon joint-density states as a powerful concept for understanding plasmon satellites.