2023/12/06 by Rammal, H., Ralko, A., Ciuchi, S. +1 · 5 citations
#Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.03840
We carefully revisit the electron-boson scattering problem, going beyond popular semi-classical treatments. By providing numerically exact results valid at finite temperatures, we demonstrate the existence of a regime of electron-boson scattering where quantum localization processes become relevant despite the absence of extrinsic disorder. Localization in the Anderson sense is caused by the emergent randomness resulting from a large thermal boson population, being effective at transient times before diffusion can set in. Compelling evidence of this transient localization phenomenon is provided by the observation of a distinctive displaced Drude peak (DDP) in the optical absorption and the ensuing suppression of conductivity. Our findings identify a general route for anomalous metallic behavior that can broadly apply in interacting quantum matter.