Electronic interactions in fullerene molecules

Abstract

We study the Coulomb interactions in fullerene molecules within a continuum formalism. The model gives rise to a renormalizable field theory, which has many similarities to standard quantum electrodynamics. The effective electric charge at low energies is reduced by screening processes. The associated renormalization of the one electron Green's function leads to the vanishing of the quasiparticle pole. It implies the dissappearance of coherent one particle excitations, in close analogy to the one dimensional Luttinger liquid. The relevance of these results for C$_{60}$ and related molecules is discussed.