Quasiparticle

In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations

(which are closely related) are emergent phenomena that
occur when a microscopically complicated system such
as a solid behaves as if it contained dierent weakly
interacting particles in free space. For example, as an
electron travels through a semiconductor, its motion is
disturbed in a complex way by its interactions with all of
the other electrons and nuclei; however it approximately
behaves like an electron with a dierent mass traveling
unperturbed through free space. This electron with a
dierent mass is called an electron quasiparticle.[1] In
another example, the aggregate motion of electrons in
the valence band of a semiconductor is the same as if
the semiconductor contained instead positively charged
quasiparticles called holes. Other quasiparticles or collective excitations include phonons (particles derived from
the vibrations of atoms in a solid), plasmons (particles
derived from plasma oscillations), and many others.

straight line, and in quantum mechanics, it would move in

a superposition of plane waves. This is the motivation for
the concept of quasiparticles: The complicated motion
of the actual particles in a solid can be mathematically
transformed into the much simpler motion of imagined
quasiparticles, which behave more like non-interacting
particles.
In summary, quasiparticles are a mathematical tool for
simplifying the description of solids. They are not real
particles inside the solid. Instead, saying A quasiparticle
is present or A quasiparticle is moving is shorthand
for saying A large number of electrons and nuclei are
moving in a specic coordinated way.

1.2 Relation to many-body quantum mechanics

These particles are typically called quasiparticles if

they are related to fermions (like electrons and holes), and
called collective excitations if they are related to bosons
(like phonons and plasmons),[1] although the precise distinction is not universally agreed upon.[2]
The quasiparticle concept is most important in condensed
matter physics, since it is one of the few known ways
of simplifying the quantum mechanical many-body problem.

1
1.1

Energy

Overview

Excited States

Ground State

General introduction

Any system, no matter how complicated, has a ground state along

with an innite series of higher-energy excited states.

Solids are made of only three kinds of particles:

Electrons, protons, and neutrons. Quasiparticles are none
of these; instead they are an emergent phenomenon that
occurs inside the solid. Therefore, while it is quite possible to have a single particle (electron or proton or neutron)
oating in space, a quasiparticle can instead only exist inside the solid.

The principal motivation for quasiparticles is that it is

almost impossible to directly describe every particle in
a macroscopic system. For example, a barely-visible
(0.1mm) grain of sand contains around 1017 atoms and
1018 electrons. Each of these attracts or repels every
other by Coulombs law. In quantum mechanics, a system
is described by a wavefunction, which, if the particles are
interacting (as they are in our case), depends on the position of every particle in the system. So, each particle adds
three independent variables to the wavefunction, one for
each coordinate needed to describe the position of that
particle. Because of this, directly approaching the manybody problem of 1018 interacting electrons by straightforwardly trying to solve the appropriate Schrdinger equa-

Motion in a solid is extremely complicated: Each electron

and proton gets pushed and pulled (by Coulombs law)
by all the other electrons and protons in the solid (which
may themselves be in motion). It is these strong interactions that make it very dicult to predict and understand
the behavior of solids (see many-body problem). On the
other hand, the motion of a non-interacting particle is
quite simple: In classical mechanics, it would move in a
1

tion is impossible in practice, since it amounts to solving a

partial dierential equation not just in three dimensions,
but in 3x1018 dimensions one for each component of
the position of each particle.

OVERVIEW

and collective excitations are intuitively envisioned.[2] A

quasiparticle is usually thought of as being like a dressed
particle: It is built around a real particle at its core, but
the behavior of the particle is aected by the environment. A standard example is the electron quasiparticle":
A real electron particle, in a crystal, behaves as if it had
a dierent mass. On the other hand, a collective excitation is usually imagined to be a reection of the aggregate
behavior of the system, with no single real particle at its
core. A standard example is the phonon, which characterizes the vibrational motion of every atom in the crystal.

One simplifying factor is that the system as a whole,

like any quantum system, has a ground state and various excited states with higher and higher energy above
the ground state. In many contexts, only the low-lying
excited states, with energy reasonably close to the ground
state, are relevant. This occurs because of the Boltzmann
distribution, which implies that very-high-energy thermal
uctuations are unlikely to occur at any given tempera- However, these two visualizations leave some ambiguity.
For example, a magnon in a ferromagnet can be considture.
Quasiparticles and collective excitations are a type of ered in one of two perfectly equivalent ways: (a) as a molow-lying excited state. For example, a crystal at absolute bile defect (a misdirected spin) in a perfect alignment of
zero is in the ground state, but if one phonon is added to magnetic moments or (b) as a quantum of a collective
the crystal (in other words, if the crystal is made to vibrate spin wave that involves the precession of many spins. In
slightly at a particular frequency) then the crystal is now in the rst case, the magnon is envisioned as a quasiparticle,
a low-lying excited state. The single phonon is called an in the second case, as a collective excitation. However,
elementary excitation. More generally, low-lying excited both (a) and (b) are equivalent and correct descriptions.
states may contain any number of elementary excitations As this example shows, the intuitive distinction between a
(for example, many phonons, along with other quasipar- quasiparticle and a collective excitation is not particularly
important or fundamental.
ticles and collective excitations).[3]
When the material is characterized as having several elementary excitations, this statement presupposes that the
dierent excitations can be combined together. In other
words, it presupposes that the excitations can coexist simultaneously and independently. This is never exactly
true. For example, a solid with two identical phonons
does not have exactly twice the excitation energy of a
solid with just one phonon, because the crystal vibration
is slightly anharmonic. However, in many materials, the
elementary excitations are very close to being independent. Therefore, as a starting point, they are treated as
free, independent entities, and then corrections are included via interactions between the elementary excitations, such as phonon-phonon scattering".
Therefore, using quasiparticles / collective excitations, instead of analyzing 1018 particles, one needs to deal with
only a handful of somewhat-independent elementary excitations. It is therefore a very eective approach to
simplify the many-body problem in quantum mechanics.
This approach is not useful for all systems however: In
strongly correlated materials, the elementary excitations
are so far from being independent that it is not even useful
as a starting point to treat them as independent.

1.3

Distinction between quasiparticles and

collective excitations

Usually, an elementary excitation is called a quasiparticle if it is a fermion and a collective excitation if it is

a boson.[1] However, the precise distinction is not universally agreed upon.[2]
There is a dierence in the way that quasiparticles

The problems arising from the collective nature of quasiparticles have also been discussed within the philosophy of science, notably in relation to the identity conditions of quasiparticles and whether they should be considered real by the standards of, for example, entity realism.[4][5]

1.4 Eect on bulk properties

By investigating the properties of individual quasiparticles, it is possible to obtain a great deal of information
about low-energy systems, including the ow properties
and heat capacity.
In the heat capacity example, a crystal can store energy by
forming phonons, and/or forming excitons, and/or forming plasmons, etc. Each of these is a separate contribution
to the overall heat capacity.

1.5 History
The idea of quasiparticles originated in Lev Landaus theory of Fermi liquids, which was originally invented for
studying liquid helium-3. For these systems a strong
similarity exists between the notion of quasi-particle and
dressed particles in quantum eld theory. The dynamics of Landaus theory is dened by a kinetic equation
of the mean-eld type. A similar equation, the Vlasov
equation, is valid for a plasma in the so-called plasma
approximation. In the plasma approximation, charged
particles are considered to be moving in the electromagnetic eld collectively generated by all other particles,
and hard collisions between the charged particles are ne-

2.2

More specialized examples

glected. When a kinetic equation of the mean-eld type

is a valid rst-order description of a system, second-order
corrections determine the entropy production, and generally take the form of a Boltzmann-type collision term,
in which gure only far collisions between virtual particles. In other words, every type of mean-eld kinetic
equation, and in fact every mean-eld theory, involves a
quasi-particle concept.

In materials, a photon quasiparticle is a photon as

aected by its interactions with the material. In particular, the photon quasiparticle has a modied relation between wavelength and energy (dispersion relation), as described by the materials index of refraction. It may also be termed a polariton, especially near a resonance of the material. For example, an exciton-polariton is a superposition of an
exciton and a photon; a phonon-polariton is a superposition of a phonon and a photon.

A plasmon is a collective excitation, which is the

quantum of plasma oscillations (wherein all the electrons simultaneously oscillate with respect to all the
ions).

Examples of quasiparticles and

collective excitations

This section contains examples of quasiparticles and collective excitations. The rst subsection below contains
common ones that occur in a wide variety of materials under ordinary conditions; the second subsection contains
examples that arise in particular, special contexts.

2.1

More common examples

A polaron is a quasiparticle which comes about

when an electron interacts with the polarization of
its surrounding ions.
An exciton is an electron and hole bound together.
A plasmariton is a coupled optical phonon and
dressed photon consisting of a plasmon and photon.

See also: List of quasiparticles

2.2 More specialized examples

In solids, an electron quasiparticle is an electron
as aected by the other forces and interactions in
the solid. The electron quasiparticle has the same
charge and spin as a normal (elementary particle)
electron, and like a normal electron, it is a fermion.
However, its mass can dier substantially from that
of a normal electron; see the article eective mass.[1]
Its electric eld is also modied, as a result of
electric eld screening. In many other respects, especially in metals under ordinary conditions, these
so-called Landau quasiparticles closely resemble familiar electrons; as Crommies "quantum corral"
showed, an STM can clearly image their interference
upon scattering.
A hole is a quasiparticle consisting of the lack of
an electron in a state; it is most commonly used in
the context of empty states in the valence band of a
semiconductor.[1] A hole has the opposite charge of
an electron.
A phonon is a collective excitation associated with
the vibration of atoms in a rigid crystal structure. It
is a quantum of a sound wave.
A magnon is a collective excitation[1] associated
with the electrons spin structure in a crystal lattice.
It is a quantum of a spin wave.
A roton is a collective excitation associated with the
rotation of a uid (often a superuid). It is a quantum of a vortex.

Composite fermions arise in a two-dimensional system subject to a large magnetic eld, most famously
those systems that exhibit the fractional quantum
Hall eect.[6] These quasiparticles are quite unlike
normal particles in two ways. First, their charge can
be less than the electron charge e. In fact, they have
been observed with charges of e/3, e/4, e/5, and
e/7.[7] Second, they can be anyons, an exotic type
of particle that is neither a fermion nor boson.[8]
Stoner excitations in ferromagnetic metals
Bogoliubov quasiparticles in superconductors.
Superconductivity is carried by Cooper pairs
usually described as pairs of electronsthat move
through the crystal lattice without resistance.
A broken Cooper pair is called a Bogoliubov
quasiparticle.[9] It diers from the conventional
quasiparticle in metal because it combines the
properties of a negatively charged electron and a
positively charged hole (an electron void). Physical
objects like impurity atoms, from which quasiparticles scatter in an ordinary metal, only weakly
aect the energy of a Cooper pair in a conventional
superconductor. In conventional superconductors,
interference between Bogoliubov quasiparticles is
tough for an STM to see. Because of their complex
global electronic structures, however, high-Tc
cuprate superconductors are another matter. Thus
Davis and his colleagues were able to resolve
distinctive patterns of quasiparticle interference in
Bi-2212.[10]

6
A Majorana fermion is a particle which equals its
own antiparticle, and can emerge as a quasiparticle in certain superconductors, or in a quantum spin
liquid.[11]

EXTERNAL LINKS

[9] Josephson Junctions. Science and Technology Review.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
[10] J. E. Homan; McElroy, K; Lee, DH; Lang, KM;
Eisaki, H; Uchida, S; Davis, JC; et al. (2002). Imaging
Quasiparticle Interference in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+".
Science 297 (5584):
114851.
arXiv:condmat/0209276.
Bibcode:2002Sci...297.1148H.
doi:10.1126/science.1072640. PMID 12142440.

Magnetic monopoles arise in condensed matter systems such as spin ice and carry an eective magnetic charge as well as being endowed with other
typical quasiparticle properties such as an eective
mass. They may be formed through spin ips in frus- [11] Banerjee, A.; Bridges, C. A.; Yan, J.-Q.; et al. (4
April 2016). Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid
trated pyrochlore ferromagnets and interact through
behaviour in a honeycomb magnet. Nature Materials.
a Coulomb potential.
Skyrmions
Spinon is represented by quasiparticle produced as
a result of electron spin-charge separation, and can
form both quantum spin liquid and strongly correlated quantum spin liquid in some minerals like
Herbertsmithite.[12]

doi:10.1038/nmat4604. (subscription required (help)).

[12] Shaginyan, V. R.; et al.

(2012).
Identication
of Strongly Correlated Spin Liquid in Herbertsmithite. EPL 97 (5): 56001. arXiv:1111.0179.
Bibcode:2012EL.....9756001S.
doi:10.1209/02955075/97/56001.

5 Further reading
3

See also
Fractionalization

L. D. Landau, Soviet Phys. JETP. 5:101 (1957)

List of quasiparticles

A. A. Abrikosov, L. P. Gor'kov, and I. E.

Dzyaloshinski, Methods of Quantum Field Theory in
Statistical Physics (1963, 1975). Prentice-Hall, New
Jersey; Dover Publications, New York.

Mean eld theory

Pseudoparticle

L. D. Landau, Soviet Phys. JETP. 3:920 (1957)

References

[1] E. Kaxiras, Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids,

ISBN 0-521-52339-7, pages 6569.
[2] A guide to Feynman diagrams in the many-body problem,
by Richard D. Mattuck, p10. As we have seen, the quasi
particle consists of the original real, individual particle,
plus a cloud of disturbed neighbors. It behaves very much
like an individual particle, except that it has an eective
mass and a lifetime. But there also exist other kinds of
ctitious particles in many-body systems, i.e. 'collective
excitations. These do not center around individual particles, but instead involve collective, wavelike motion of all
the particles in the system simultaneously.
[3] Principles of Nanophotonics by Motoichi Ohtsu, p205
google books link
[4] A. Gelfert, 'Manipulative Success and the Unreal', International Studies in the Philosophy of Science Vol. 17,
2003, 245263
[5] B. Falkenburg, Particle Metaphysics (The Frontiers Collection), Berlin: Springer 2007, esp. pp. 24346
[6] Physics Today Article
[7] Cosmos magazine June 2008
[8] Nature article

D. Pines, and P. Nozires, The Theory of Quantum Liquids (1966). W.A. Benjamin, New York.
Volume I: Normal Fermi Liquids (1999). Westview
Press, Boulder.
J. W. Negele, and H. Orland, Quantum ManyParticle Systems (1998). Westview Press, Boulder
Amusia, M., Popov, K., Shaginyan, V.,
Stephanovich, V. (2014). Theory of Heavy-Fermion
Compounds - Theory of Strongly Correlated FermiSystems. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-10825-4.

6 External links
PhysOrg.com Scientists nd new 'quasiparticles
Curious 'quasiparticles bae physicists by Jacqui
Hayes, Cosmos 6 June 2008. Accessed June 2008

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