English

On the Electronic Contribution to Crystalline Diffraction Patterns

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2025-09-01 v1

Abstract

We introduce the electronic structure factor as a phase-sensitive contribution to diffraction that directly encodes the properties of the occupied-band wave functions. In the one-dimensional SSH model, FcondF_{\mathrm{cond}} is governed by the relative sublattice phase, which integrates to the Zak phase. This provides a clear diffraction-based criterion to distinguish trivial and topological regimes in the absence of any structural change. Beyond the SSH limit, the same Bloch-based construction naturally accounts for commensurate and incommensurate magnetic satellites in antiferromagnets, reproducing the additional peaks at q=G±Qq=G\pm Q observed in NiO, MnO, chromium, and cuprates. These results demonstrate that diffraction can probe electronic topology and magnetic ordering on equal footing, opening a route to phase-sensitive structural characterization of correlated electron systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.21752,
  title  = {On the Electronic Contribution to Crystalline Diffraction Patterns},
  author = {Sebastian Allende and David Galvez-Poblete},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.21752},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:12:28.995Z