Incommensurate Charge Density Waves in the adiabatic Hubbard-Holstein model

Abstract

The adiabatic, Holstein-Hubbard model describes electrons on a chain with step $a$ interacting with themselves (with coupling $U$) and with a classical phonon field $\f_x$ (with coupling $\l$). There is Peierls instability if the electronic ground state energy $F(\f)$ as a functional of $\f_x$ has a minimum which corresponds to a periodic function with period ${\pi\over p_F}$, where $p_F$ is the Fermi momentum. We consider ${p_F\over\pi a}$ irrational so that the CDW is {\it incommensurate} with the chain. We prove in a rigorous way in the spinless case, when $\l,U$ are small and ${U\over\l}$ large, that a)when the electronic interaction is attractive $U<0$ there is no Peierls instability b)when the interaction is repulsive $U>0$ there is Peierls instability in the sense that our convergent expansion for $F(\f)$, truncated at the second order, has a minimum which corresponds to an analytical and ${\pi\over p_F}$ periodic $\f_x$. Such a minimum is found solving an infinite set of coupled self-consistent equations, one for each of the infinite Fourier modes of $\f_x$.