Quantum Correlations in Metals that Grow in Time and Space

Abstract

We show that the correlations of electrons with a fixed energy in metals have very anomalous time and space dependences. Due to soft modes that exist in any Fermi liquid, combined with the incomplete screening of the Coulomb interaction at finite frequencies, the correlations in 2-d systems grow with time as $t^2$. In the presence of disorder, the spatial correlations grow as the distance squared. Similar, but in general weaker, effects are present in 3-d systems and in the absence of quenched disorder. We propose ways to experimentally measure these anomalous correlations.