A new perspective on the Holstein polaron problem

The single-polaron band structure of the Holstein model in one and two dimensions is studied using a new form of resummed strong-coupling perturbation theory. Well converged results are obtained for phonon frequencies of the order of the hopping integral and strong to intermediate electron-phonon coupling. The polaron band structure at intermediate coupling is shown to deviate markedly from that of a nearest-neighbor tight-binding model, and is in fact similar in shape to the prediction of weak-coupling self-consistent perturbation theory.