Motions of electrons in adiabatically perturbed periodic structures

Panati, Gianluca; Spohn, Herbert; Teufel, Stefan

Motions of electrons in adiabatically perturbed periodic structures

Authors

Panati, Gianluca

Spohn, Herbert

Teufel, Stefan

Description

We study the motion of electrons in a periodic background potential (usually resulting from a crystalline solid). For small velocities one would use either the non-magnetic or the magnetic Bloch hamiltonian, while in the relativistic regime one would use the Dirac equation with a periodic potential. The dynamics, with the background potential included, is perturbed either through slowly varying external electromagnetic potentials or through a slow deformation of the crystal. In either case we discuss how the Hilbert space of states decouples into almost invariant subspaces and explain the effective dynamics within such a subspace.
23 pages, no figures