2012/02/23 by Mathieu Lewin, Lewin, Mathieu, Nicolas Rougerie +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Analysis of PDEs (math.AP) #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #math-ph #math.AP #math.MP
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1202.5103
28 pages, a mistake in the former version has been corrected
arxiv created 2012/11/14 · arxiv updated 2012/11/15
We consider a multi-polaron model obtained by coupling the many-body Schrödinger equation for N interacting electrons with the energy functional of a mean-field crystal with a localized defect, obtaining a highly non linear many-body problem. The physical picture is that the electrons constitute a charge defect in an otherwise perfect periodic crystal. A remarkable feature of such a system is the possibility to form a bound state of electrons via their interaction with the polarizable background. We prove first that a single polaron always binds, i.e. the energy functional has a minimizer for N=1. Then we discuss the case of multi-polarons containing two electrons or more. We show that their existence is guaranteed when certain quantized binding inequalities of HVZ type are satisfied.