Quantum diffusion in a random potential: A consistent perturbation theory

Abstract

We scrutinize the diagrammatic perturbation theory of noninteracting electrons in a random potential with the aim to accomplish a consistent comprehensive theory of quantum diffusion. Ward identity between the one-electron self-energy and the two-particle irreducible vertex is generally not guaranteed in the perturbation theory with only elastic scatterings. We show how the Ward identity can be established in practical approximations and how the functions from the perturbation expansion should be used to obtain a fully consistent conserving theory. We derive the low-energy asymptotics of the conserving full two-particle vertex from which we find an exact representation of the diffusion pole and of the static diffusion constant in terms of Green functions of the perturbation expansion. We illustrate the construction on the leading vertex corrections to the mean-field diffusion due to maximally-crossed diagrams responsible for weak localization.