Prof. Dr. Arno Schindlmayr

The electronic and optical properties of a material are determined by the quantum mechanical behaviour of the electrons within the solid. As the electrons have a negative electrical charge and therefore influence each other through their Coulomb interaction, collective phenomena play a central role in this context. One example of this is the occurrence of excitons and plasmon excitations in optical spectroscopies.

The aim of many-body theory is to understand these correlation mechanisms and to describe how they result in the observed macroscopic material properties. In doing so, we start from the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics alone, without using empirical parameters, so that the numerical results have real predictive power. The most important mathematical methods we use are many-body perturbation theory and time-dependent density functional theory, which allow a precise quantitative calculation of electronic excitation states including their dynamics and interaction with external electromagnetic fields.