2015 CAP Congress / Congrès de l'ACP 2015

A Variational Wave Function for Electrons coupled to Acoustic Phonons

16 Jun 2015, 10:00

15m

NINT Taylor room (University of Alberta)

Oral (Student, In Competition) / Orale (Étudiant(e), inscrit à la compétition) Condensed Matter and Materials Physics / Physique de la matière condensée et matériaux (DCMMP-DPMCM) T1-1 Superconductivity (DCMMP) / Supraconductivité (DPMCM)

Speaker

Carl Chandler (University of Alberta)

Description

We survey briefly the electron-phonon interactions in metals with an emphasis on applications in electron-phonon mediated superconductivity. While BCS theory and Eliashberg theory have significant predictive power, the microscopic Hamiltonians for the processes they describe are still an open area of study. We will examine the hitherto unsolved BLF-SSH model of electrons interacting with acoustical phonons and present a novel variational wave function for the solution of this model. We examine the validity of this variational wave function across applicable parameter regimes.