text:
# Centimetre continuum emission from young stellar objects in Cederblad 110

## 1 Introduction

The Cederblad 110 (Ced 110) reflection nebula in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud is associated with one of the nearest low-mass star forming regions, with young stellar objects (YSOs) in all different phases from a pre-stellar clump and Class 0 protostellar candidate to a Class III pre-main sequence star (for YSO classification, see Lada (lada87 (1987)) and André et al. (andre93 (1993))). The region is therefore favourable for studies of the dependence of radio continuum emission on the stellar evolutionary stage. On the other hand, a centimetre continuum mapping may reveal protostars, which have remained undetected in the infrared because of large optical depths. With these prospects as motivation we have mapped the central part of the nebula with the Australian Compact Array (ATCA) in continuum at 6 cm and 3.5 cm, in order to investigate the nature of the known stellar sources and to search for new protostellar candidates.

The region has been studied in great detail in the near-IR by Zinnecker et al. (zinnecker99 (1999)) and Persi et al. (persi01 (2001)), in the mid-IR by Persi et al. (persi00 (2000)), and in the far-IR by Lehtinen et al. (lehtinen01 (2001)). These papers contain all the relevant references to previous studies at various wavelengths ranging from 1.3 mm to X-rays. The YSOs identified in different surveys are listed in Table 1, which also gives the estimated infrared class, and the region of the electromagnetic spectrum where the source is detected. The brighest star in visible light and in the X-rays is the weak-lined T Tauri star (Class III) IRS 2 (Eintein X-ray source CHX 7), which is the illuminating star of Ced 110. The Class I object IRS 4 is the most prominent far-infrared source, whereas the 1.3 mm continuum map is dominated by the Class 0 candidate Cha-MMS1 (the references are given in Table 1).

The distribution of molecular gas in the region has been studied by Mattila et al. (mattila89 (1989)), and more recently by Mizuno et al. (1999). Mattila et al. (mattila89 (1989)) detected a bipolar molecular outflow originating somewhere in the centre of Ced 110. Reipurth et al. (reipurth96 (1996)) mapped the centre of Ced 110 in continuum at 1.3 mm with a resolution of 22″, and detected a marginally resolved bright dust continuum source they called Cha-MMS1. This source is coincident with the centre of a dense molecular clump studied in several molecular species by Kontinen et al. (kontinen00 (2000)). Reipurth et al. suggested that Cha-MMS1 contains a Class 0 protostar, which is the driving source of the molecular outflow and Herbig-Haro objects HH 49/50 located about 10′south of it. Since the central sources of Herbig-Haro flows are often detected in radio continuum (e.g. Rodríguez & Reipurth rodriguez96 (1996)), one of the aims of the observations discussed here was to verify - or invalidate - this suggestion.

In Sect. 2 of this paper we discuss briefly the mechanisms of radio emission associated with newly born stars. In Sect. 3 we describe our observational procedure. In Sect. 4 we present the results and discuss the properties of individual sources in the light of previous surveys and some theoretical expectations. Finally, in Sect. 5 we summarize our conclusions.

## 2 Cm-wavelength continuum emission from YSOs

A large fraction of the youngest protostars, i.e. those belonging to the Classes 0 and I, have been detected in radio continuum at cm wavelengths (e.g. Anglada anglada96 (1996); Rodríguez rodriguez94 (1994)). Class III objects are often associated with non-thermal radio emission. On the other hand, the detection rate amongst Class II protostars is lower than for the other classes. Gibb (gibb99 (1999)) discussed this problem and suggested a scenario in which the dominant emission mechanism at cm wavelengths changes with the age of the YSO. According to this Class 0 and Class I objects, which are in the main and late accretion phase, respectively, emit thermal free-free emission from ionized jets, but this emission declines with time when the accretion rate or outflow efficiency (which are intimately linked) go down. Finally in the Class III stage, synchrotron emission from the exposed pre-main-sequence star becomes the dominant mechanism (see also Wilking et al. wilking01 (2001)).

Thermal emission can arise directly from stellar winds or collimated jets, or from shocks associated with jets or infall onto accretion disks. Non-thermal emission is related to magnetic fields close to the chromospherically active YSO, and/or to the star-disc interaction region. It is known that ionization by stellar photons is insufficient to produce the continuum emission in low luminosity sources such as those in Cederblad 110 (see e.g. Rodríguez et al. rodriguez89 (1989)). Reviews on possible thermal and non-thermal emission mechanisms in connection with young stars at different stages of evolution are given e.g. in Anglada (anglada96 (1996)), André (andre96 (1996)), Panagia (panagia91 (1991)), and Feigelson & Montmerle (feigelson99 (1999)). Models explaining the observed properties of the free-free emission sources are presented e.g. in Reynolds (reynolds86 (1986), collimated ionized winds), Curiel et al. (curiel87 (1987), Herbig-Haro shocks), Neufeld & Hollenbach (neufeld96 (1996), accretion shocks), and Ghavamian & Hartigan (ghavamian98 (1998), shocks in dense gas).

## 3 Observations and data reduction

Cederblad 110 was observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), located at Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia. The observations were made on 2000 May 24 and 28, with the 1.5A array configuration. The frequencies 4.80 GHz (6 cm) and 8.64 GHz (3.5 cm) were observed simultaneously. The correlator configuration used provided at each frequency a total bandwidth of 104 MHz recorded as a 13 channel spectrum.

The calibration sources were selected from the ATCA Calibrator Source Catalogue (Reynolds reynolds97 (1997)). The Seyfert 2 galaxy PKS 1934–638 was used as the primary flux calibrator, and the phase-reference calibrator was the quasar PKS 1057–797. The flux densities and the degrees of polarization of 1057–797 were found to be higher than those given in ATCA catalogue (see Table 2).

The observations were made in two 12 hours runs, alternating between the target source (25 minutes) and the phase calibrator (5 minutes). During the first night the observations were interrupted by rain for an hour, but during the second night the weather was excellent.

The data were calibrated and cleaned with the Miriad package (Sault et al. sault95 (1995)). The inversion was performed using all the channel information (i.e. multifrequency synthesis). The flux densities of the detectected sources were derived from naturally weighted images corrected for the primary beam responses. The noise levels at the centres of the images, and the synthesized beams are given in Table 2. Intensity maxima exceeding $`3\times `$ the local rms are considered as detections.

## 4 Results and discussion

Altogether 11 radio sources were identified by inspecting the maps visually. The characteristics of the detected sources are summarized in Table 3. In this table we give for each source the designation, the equatorial coordinates, the angular size, the flux densities at 3.5 and 6 cm and the spectral index, $`\alpha `$, determined from the latter two values. The radio source Ced 110 R5 has two maxima, which are treated as separate components. The error in the $`\alpha `$ is estimated on the basis of random noise only. Objects that may be associated with the radio sources at other wavelengths were searched in the SIMBAD database.

Three of the detected sources are previously known objects: the infrared sources IRS 2 and IRS 4, and the X-ray source CHX10a. The rest are new sources, and we designate them as Ced 110 R1, Ced 110 R2, etc., where “Ced 110 R” stands for “Ced 110 radio source”. The mm-wave continuum source Cha-MMS1 was not detected. As can be seen from Table 3, only three sources, Ced 110 R1, IRS 2 and IRS 4, are visible at both 3.5 and 6 cm.

The positions and sizes of the detected sources have been determined by two-dimensional gaussian fits. If a source is pointlike, the flux and its error given in Table 3 are the peak flux and its error of the gaussian fit. For resolved sources the flux is determined by adding up the pixels with flux density greater than the local 3 $`\sigma `$ rms noise value. The error of the integrated flux density for resolved sources is derived using the formula

$$\sigma =\sigma _0(N/\theta )^{1/2},$$
(1)
where $`\sigma _0`$ is the rms noise in the background, $`N`$ is the number of pixels over which the source is summed up, and $`\theta `$ is the number of pixels per beam.

If a source is detected at one frequency only and is found to be extended, the upper limit of integrated flux at the other frequency is estimated according to the formulation of Bertlán et al. (beltran01 (2001)). We use the equation $`S_{\mathrm{lim}}=3\sigma A^{0.7}`$, where $`A`$ is the source size in units of beam area, $`\sigma `$ is the local rms noise, and assume a nominal $`3\sigma `$ detection as for point sources.

The locations of the radio sources are indicated with filled circles on the map presented in Fig. 1. This figure shows the extended far-IR emission ridge from Lehtinen et al. (lehtinen01 (2001)) overlaid on an unpublished C18O$`(J=10)`$ integrated intensity map. The sources detected previously in other surveys are indicated with filled triangles.

In the following we first discuss spectral indices predicted by different models of thermal radio emission from YSOs, and then in the next subsection, the nature of individual sources detected in this survey on the basis of their radio properties and association with known objects.

### 4.1 Spectral indices of thermal sources

The predicted spectral index $`\alpha `$ ($`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha )`$ of the so called standard spherical wind, i.e. a fully ionized, constant velocity and isotropic stellar wind, is 0.6 at centimetre wavelengths (e.g. Panagia & Felli panagia75 (1975)). Reynolds (reynolds86 (1986)) have modelled continuum emission from both collimated and accelerated spherical flows. According to these results the spectral index can increase above 0.6 for an accelerated flow, but a collimated ionized flow produces a flat spectrum with $`\alpha <0.6`$. Rodríguez et al. (rodriguez93 (1993)) have shown that the spectral index expected from an ionized jet is always greater than $`0.1`$, irrespective the geometry and possible clumpiness.

Optically thick free-free emission can be detected from shocks occurring in very dense gas, as in the situations of accreting material falling onto a circumstellar disk or a jet penetreting into dense circumstellar material (Neufeld & Hollenbach neufeld96 (1996); Ghavamian & Hartigan ghavamian98 (1998)).

### 4.2 Radio emission from the young stars IRS 2, IRS 4 and CHX10a, and thermal sources possibly associated with Ced 110

IRS 2 is the second strongest 3.5 cm source in this survey, and the third strongest at 6 cm. The spectral index is $`0.05\pm 0.05`$, and the radio continuum luminosity at 3.5 cm $`L_{3.5\mathrm{cm}}=0.025\mathrm{mJy}\mathrm{kpc}^2`$. The luminosities are estimated using the distance 150 pc to Chamaeleon I (Knude & Høg knude98 (1998)). As an evolved YSO IRS 2 is probably not associated with a thick accretion disk. The ionized winds or collimated jets emanating from this star are therefore likely to proceed freely, and according to models quoted in Sect. 2 the free-free emission should show a flat spectrum as indeed is the case. Consider the model of Reynolds (reynolds86 (1986)) for an isothermal, constant-velocity, fully ionized flow with $`w(r)r^ϵ`$, where $`w(r)`$ is the half-width of the jet perpendicular to its axis and $`r`$ is the distance from the central source. In this model the spectral index in the optically thick case depends on $`ϵ`$ according to $`\alpha =1.30.7/ϵ`$. The spectral index observed towards IRS 2 would then correspond to the collimation exponent $`ϵ=0.6`$.

The powerful X-ray emission associated with IRS 2 implies, on the other hand, magnetic activity close to its surface. Magnetic loops or fast shocks caused by ejecta from the surface may be sources of non-thermal radio emission. The observed spectral index is in fact consistent with moderately optically thick synchrotron emission. These kind of activities are generally associated with detectable circular polarization. No polarized signal is, however, detected towards this source. Without further evidence for the synchrotron model we think the more likely alternative is that the radio spectrum is dominated by free-free emission from ionized jets.

IRS 4: The radio source is located about 2″to the northwest from the position of the highly reddened illuminating star of the bipolar reflection nebula discovered by Zinnecker et al. (zinnecker99 (1999)) (see also Persi et al. persi01 (2001)). Taking the positional inaccuracies into account, the radio source is almost certainly associated with this star. The spectral index, $`1.7\pm 0.3`$, indicates optically thick free-free emission, which according to the models of Neufeld & Hollenbach (neufeld96 (1996)) and Ghavamian & Hartigan (ghavamian98 (1998)) signifies shocks in dense circumstellar material. The existence of a massive circumstellar disk or envelope around IRS 4 is evident from the near-IR images of Zinnecker et al. (zinnecker99 (1999)) and Persi et al. (persi01 (2001)). Far-IR ISOPHOT observations of Lehtinen et al. (lehtinen01 (2001)), where IRS 4 is by far the strongest source in the region, indicate a large circumstellar mass. According to the estimates of Persi et al. the mass of the central object is very low ($`0.10.3M_{}`$), which suggests that powerful accretion shocks are less likely. Interaction between stellar jets and surrounding material are therefore the most plausible origin of the radio continuum emission for this object.

IRS 4 lies close to the centre of the molecular outflow detected in 12CO by Mattila et al. (mattila89 (1989)). As the only Class I object in this region provedly associated with thermal jets IRS 4 is probably the central source of the outflow.

CHX10a: Weak emission at 6-cm originates close to the X-ray source CHX10a, which is classified as a weak-line T Tauri star, i.e. a Class III object (Feigelson & Kriss feigelson89 (1989); Feigelson et al. feigelson93 (1993)). In the latter study the source was designated as CHXR28 (CHXR is for “Chamaeleon I X-ray ROSAT”), and it is also known as the infrared source ISO-ChaI 117 (Persi et al. persi00 (2000)). At 3.5 cm the source lies outside the field of view limited by the primary beam response, and unfortunately we cannot derive even the upper limit for the spectral index. Judging from the nature of star, the 6 cm emission is likely to be synchrotron emission originating from magnetic loops close to the stellar surface.

Ced 110 R3 and 4: These weak sources lying close to IRS 2 in the centre of Ced 110 are detected at 3.5 cm only. The lower limits of their spectral indices are consistent with thermal emission. We therefore consider it possible that these sources are associated with the Chamaeleon I cloud, perhaps representing shocks associated with jets emanating from one of the young stars in the region.

### 4.3 Non-detections

Cha–MMS1: A Class 0 object should, by definition, show indirect evidence for the presence of a central protostellar object in the form of cm-wavelength continuum emission or a molecular outflow. Since Cha-MMS1 was not detected in either frequency band, and the centre of the molecular outflow is not coincident with it, Cha-MMS1 does not seem to fulfil the criteria for a Class 0 protostar. Probably it represents an earlier stage where violent processes have not yet taken effect. The empirical relation of Harvey et al. (harvey02 (2002)) between the 3.6 cm continuum flux $`S_{3.6\mathrm{cm}}`$ and bolometric luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ for Class 0 and I protostellar sources gives an upper limit of $`L_{\mathrm{bol}}0.17\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}`$, when the 3 $`\sigma `$ upper limit for the 3.5 cm flux density is used. The bolometric luminosity $`0.45L_{\mathrm{}}`$ derived from far-IR observations (Lehtinen et al. lehtinen01 (2001)) is higher than this upper limit, suggesting that the Harvey et al. relation is not valid for Cha-MMS1, which supports the idea that it does not belong to Class 0.

IRS 6: The Class I object IRS 6 belongs to the most luminous YSOs in the region along with IRS 2 and IRS 4. Persi et al. (persi01 (2001)) resolved this object into two components, IRS 6a and 6b, of which 6a dominates the mid-IR and far-IR emission. The far-IR and sub-mm data suggest that the negative result at cm wavelengths reflects profound differences between IRS 6 and IRS 4, and not merely temporal variability (e.g. Lucas et al. lucas00 (2000)). The far-IR spectrum of IRS 6 indicates much weaker circumstellar dust emission than in the case of IRS 4 (see Table 2 of Lehtinen et al. lehtinen01 (2001)). Moreover, as discussed in Carkner et al. (carkner98 (1998)), the fact that (unlike IRS 4) it was not detected in the 1.3 mm survey of Henning et al. (henning93 (1993)) betokens a lack of circumstellar envelope, and perhaps a more advanced stage of protostellar evolution. The non-detection in the radio could then be understood in terms of the evolutionary scenario laid out by Gibb (gibb99 (1999)), and summarized in Sect. 2.

### 4.4 Background objects

The deep optical and near-IR surveys performed towards Ced 110 (Persi et al. persi01 (2001)) have probably revealed all Class III protostars in the region, for example the “naked YSO” -type objects with non-thermal radio spectra detected by André et al. (andre92 (1992)) in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud. Radio sources with negative spectral indices in our maps without any counterpart in the near-IR are therefore likely to be background objects, and as we are rather far from the Galactic plane, these objects are probably radio galaxies, although pulsars cannot be totally excluded.

Ced 110 R1: The previously unknown compact source Ced 110 R1 is by far the strongest 6 cm and 3.5 cm source in this survey. The rather large negative spectral index, $`\alpha =1.09\pm 0.03`$, can be found among the various classes of extragalactic steep-spectrum sources, but would not be unusual for pulsars, which often have, however, still steeper spectra in this wavelength range (see e.g. Kaplan et al. kaplan00 (2000)). Ced 110 R1 can be detected also in the Stokes Q and U images (220 and 160 $`\mu `$Jy, respectively), but not in Stokes V. As the I flux density is about 14.7 mJy, these results indicate linear polarization at the level 1.8%. Further observations to investigate the nature of this bright object seem warranted.

Ced 110 R5: This marginally resolved source detected at 6 cm is located within the dust emission ridge (see Fig. 1), close to the grouping of YSOs containing IRS 2, 4, 6 and 11. A contour image of Ced 110 R5 is presented in Fig. 2. The image shows two emission maxima (components a and b) separated by $`3\mathrm{}`$, and the southern source has an extension at about 2–3$`\sigma `$ level reaching out to the east. The parameters of the components given in Table 3 were determined by fitting two gaussian functions to the image. Both sources have negative spectral indices. The object lies close to the X-ray source which Carkner et al. (carkner98 (1998)) associated with the infrared source ISO-ChaI 101 (see their Fig. 1). The angular distance to Ced 110 R5 from centre of the X-ray source ($`15\mathrm{}`$) is about the same as from there to ISO-ChaI 101 (see Fig. 2). Judging from the positional coincidence the association of Ced 110 R5 with the X-ray source is equally likely as it is for ISO-ChaI 101. The separation between between Ced 110 R5 and ISO-ChaI 101 (corresponding to 4000 AU at a distance of 150 pc) is too large to expect a connection. Therefore, as it is not associated with an infrared source, Ced 110 R5 is probably a background radio galaxy.

Ced 110 R2, Ced 110 R6 and Ced 110 R7: These sources are visible at 6 cm only and for R2 and R7 the upper limits of the spectral indices are negative, suggesting optically thin synchrotron emission. The large upper limit of the spectral index of R6 is due to its location close to the outer edge of the map. Most likely these sources background radio galaxies. Ced 110 R2 and Ced 110 R7 are slightly extended with elliptical shapes. Ced 110 R2 is the second brightest source at 6 cm. It lies at a distance of about $`10\mathrm{}`$ from the X-ray source CHXR 15, which Feigelson et al. (feigelson93 (1993)) identified with a star visible on the ESO/SERC Sky Survey plates with an R-band magnitude of 16.0. The radio sources Ced 110 R6 and Ced 110 R7 have no counterpart in other surveys. The former object lies in the direction of the extended 200 $`\mu `$m emission ridge, but the location is probably purely coincidental.

## 5 Conclusions

Three YSOs associated with the Cederblad 110 star formation region have been detected with the Australian Telescope Compact Array at 3.5 cm and 6 cm. These three sources, IRS 4 (Class I), IRS 2 (Class III) and CHX10a (Class III) represent different stages of stellar evolution. IRS 2 shows a flat spectrum but no polarization, and these properties can be explained by optically thin free-free emission from ionized stellar wind or a collimated jet. The spectral index of IRS 4 is consistent with optically thick free-free emission, probably arising from a jet-driven shock in the circumstellar material. The other luminous Class I source IRS 6 is not detected in radio, but there are indications in previous sub-mm and far-IR observations that it has less circumstellar material than IRS 4 and can thus represent a more evolved protostar. The fact that of the four Class I objects in the region only the strongest far-IR source (IRS 4) is detected in radio, suggests a correlation between the outflow activity and the amount of circumstellar matter. The radio properties of IRS 2 and IRS 4, and the quietness of IRS 6, conform with the concept that the radio activity and the nature of the emission change in the course of protostellar evolution, as discussed e.g. by Gibb (gibb99 (1999)) and Feigelson & Montmerle (feigelson99 (1999)). The spectral index of radio emission from CHX10a could not be determined because it lies outside the FOV at 3.5 cm. As the star is a Class III object associated with X-ray emission, the 6 cm emission is probably non-thermal.

The Class 0 candidate ChaMMS-1 (Reipurth et al. reipurth96 (1996)) is not detected in radio. Thus, since there is no clear evidence for jets or outflow associated with this source, we suggest that it represents a still earlier protostellar stage or a pre-stellar clump. As a Class I protostar with optically thick ionized wind IRS 4 is the most likely candidate for the central source of the molecular outflow detected by Mattila et al. (mattila89 (1989)).

Eight radio sources with no counterpart in other wavelengths were detected in the region of Ced 110. Two of these additional sources were detected at 3.5 cm only and can be shocks associated with the star forming region. The rest have negative spectral indices and are probably radio galaxies. The brighest of these is a compact source with a spectral index of $`1.1`$ and a weak linear polarization ($`2\%`$) at 6 cm. Further radio observations of this source seem warranted.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank the ATCA staff for their help during our observations. We are grateful to Professor Kalevi Mattila for helpful comments on the manuscript. The work of K.L., S.K. and J.H. has been supported by the Finnish Academy through grants Nos. 173 727 and 174854, which is gratefully acknowledged. The work of S.K. has been supported by the Väisälä Foundation of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.


format: text

text:
# Ghost Fano resonance in a double quantum dot molecule attached to leads

## I Introduction

The tunneling of electrons through quantum dot structures has been the subject of active research during the last years. For the confinement of electron in all three dimensions, quantum dots are characterized by the discreteness of the energy levels, and for this reason are often called “artificial atoms”. qd1 ; qd2  One of the main features of transport through quantum dots is that the coherence of electrons is greatly preserved, as manifested in phenomena such as the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in multiply connected geometries, ABoscill  the Kondo effect in dots strongly coupled to electron reservoirs, kondo  and Fano-type line shapes in transport through multiple channels. fano

Two or more quantum dots can be coupled to form an “artificial molecule”, in which electrons are shared by the different sites. The formation of bonding and antibonding states in such molecules has been studied by means of transport blick2 ; jeong ; holleitner1 ; holleitner2  as well as spectroscopy experiments. schedelbeck ; oosterkamp  Theoretical work on electron transport through serial quantum dot configurations is contained in Refs. tmols , and quantum interference effects have been explored in parallel and “T-shaped” geometries. Tdqd1 ; kang ; boese  Particular interest in quantum dot molecules lies in their potential application in quantum computing devices. In this context, diverse proposals have been made, where the quantum bits are built with electron spin states loss1  or with the coherent mode generated by discrete states in an artificial molecule. blick3

In this work we study the electronic transport through a double quantum dot molecule attached to leads, in a transition from a connection in series to a completely symmetrical parallel configuration. We examine the linear conductance at zero temperature and obtain the associated densities of states of each of the dots. We find that the conductance spectrum is composed of a Lorentzian centered at the bonding energy and a Fano line shape at the energy of the antibonding state. The latter arises due to the presence of a bound state of the molecule, immersed in the band continuum. A progressive line narrowing of the Fano peak is observed as the system transits from the series to the symmetrical parallel configuration. For the perfectly symmetrical geometry, the antibonding state is totally uncoupled of the leads, the bonding state becoming the only one that participates in the transmission. In this extreme case, the antibonding state is localized, with zero localization length. Although exponentially localized states generally exist outside the band continuum, this state is in the conduction band and acts like a ghost of the Fano resonance.

## II Model

We consider two neighboring quantum dots forming a molecule, coupled to left and right leads as shown in Fig. 1. Only one energy level in each dot is assumed relevant and the interdot and intradot electron-electron interactions are neglected.

The system can be modelled by a non-interacting two-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian, which can be written as

$$H=H_m+H_l+H_I,$$
(1)
where $`H_m`$ describes the dynamics of the isolate molecule,

$$H_m=\underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}\epsilon _id_i^{}d_it_c(d_2^{}d_1+d_1^{}d_2).$$
(2)
Here $`\epsilon _i`$ is the energy of dot $`i`$, $`d_i`$ $`(d_i^{})`$ annihilates (creates) an electron in dot $`i`$ and $`t_c`$ is the interdot tunneling coupling. $`H_l`$ is the Hamiltonian for the noninteracting electrons in the left and right leads

$$H_l=\underset{k_\alpha \{L,R\}}{}\epsilon _{k_\alpha }c_{k_\alpha }^{}c_{k_\alpha },$$
(3)
where $`c_{k_\alpha }`$ $`(c_{k_\alpha }^{})`$ is the annihilation (creation) operator of an electron of quantum number $`k_\alpha `$ and energy $`\epsilon _{k_\alpha }`$ in the contact $`\alpha `$. Finally, $`H_I`$ accounts for the tunneling between dots and leads,

$`H_I`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k_\alpha \{L,R\}}{}}V_{1k_\alpha }d_1^{}c_{k_\alpha }+\text{ h. c.}`$ (4)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{k_\alpha \{L,R\}}{}}V_{2k_\alpha }d_2^{}c_{k_\alpha }+\text{ h. c.},`$
with $`V_{ik_\alpha }`$ the tunneling matrix element. The linear conductance $`G`$ is related to the transmission $`T(\epsilon )`$ of an electron of energy $`\epsilon `$ by the Landauer formula at zero temperature datta ,

$$G=\frac{2e^2}{h}T(\epsilon _F).$$
(5)
To obtain explicitly $`G`$, we use the equation of motion approach for the Green’s function datta . The retarded Green’s function is defined by

$$G_{ij}^r(t)=i\theta (t)\{d_i(t),d_j^{}(0)\},i,j=1,2,$$
(6)
where $`\theta (t)`$ is the step function. In the absence of interaction, the total transmission $`T(\epsilon )`$ can be expressed as

$$T(\epsilon )=tr\{𝐆^a(\epsilon )𝚪^R𝐆^r(\epsilon )𝚪^L\},$$
(7)
where $`𝐆^{r(a9)}(\epsilon )`$ is the Fourier transform of the retarded (advanced) Green’s function of the molecule, and the matrix $`𝚪^{L(R)}`$ describes the tunneling coupling of the two quantum dots to the left (right) lead, with

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^{L(R)}=2\pi \underset{k_{L(R)}}{}V_{ik_{L(R)}}V_{jk_{L(R)}}^{}\delta (\epsilon \epsilon _{k_{L(R)}}),i,j=1,2.$$
(8)
The equation of motion method uses the Heisenberg equations for the Fermi operators of the molecule, which are inserted in the time derivatives of the Green’s functions of Eq. (6). This leads to first order differential equations for the $`G_{ij}^r`$’s, containing Green’s functions for different dot operators, as well as others involving dot and lead operators. Through the same procedure, equations for these new Green’s functions are obtained, until having a closed set. A Fourier transform of such a set of equation takes it to an algebraic linear system for the $`G_{ij}^r(\epsilon )`$’s, the solution of which leads to the following expression for $`𝐆^r`$

$$𝐆^r(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\epsilon \epsilon _2+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}}{2}\hfill & t_c+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}}{2}\hfill \\ t_c+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}}{2}\hfill & \epsilon \epsilon _1+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}}{2}\hfill \end{array}\right),$$
(9)
where

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=(\epsilon \epsilon _1+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}}{2})(\epsilon \epsilon _2+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}}{2})(t_c+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}}{2})(t_c+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}}{2}),$$
(10)
with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^R`$. A useful quantity which provides insight into the electronic distribution is the local density of states in dot $`i`$. It can be written in terms of the diagonal matrix elements of the retarded Green’s function,

$$\rho _i(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi }\text{I}mG_{ii}^r(\epsilon ),i=1,2.$$
(11)
We are interested in the particular situation described in Fig. 1, in which $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}^R=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}^L\gamma _1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}^L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}^R\gamma _2`$, so that $`\gamma _2=0`$ represents a connection in series, and $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1`$ a symmetrical configuration in parallel. For this case, the non diagonal matrix elements of the matrices $`𝚪^{L,R}`$ obey $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}^L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}^L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}^R=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}^R\sqrt{\gamma _1\gamma _2}`$.

## III Conductance and local density of states

Introducing Eqs. (9)-(10) in Eq. (7) and then in (5), and using the above values of the $`𝚪^{L,R}`$ matrix elements, we obtain the following expression for the conductance

$$G(\epsilon )=\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{4}{C_1}\left[t_c\overline{\gamma }\gamma _{12}(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon })\right]^2,$$
(12)
where

$`C_1`$ $`=`$ $`\left[(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon })^2(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon /2)^2t_c^2{\displaystyle \frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )^2}{4}}\right]^2`$ (13)
$`+`$ $`4\left[\overline{\gamma }(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon })t_c\gamma _{12}\right]^2,`$
with $`\overline{\epsilon }=(\epsilon _1+\epsilon _2)/2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =\epsilon _1\epsilon _2`$, $`\overline{\gamma }=(\gamma _1+\gamma _2)/2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma =\gamma _1\gamma _2`$ and $`\gamma _{12}=\sqrt{\gamma _1\gamma _2}`$. The densities of states at each of the quantum dots are, in turn,

$$\rho _1(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi C_1}\left\{\overline{\gamma }[t_c^2+\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )^2}{4}+(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon }+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon }{2})^2]+4t_c\gamma _{12}(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon }+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon }{2})\right\},$$
(14)
and

$$\rho _2(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi C_1}\left\{\overline{\gamma }[t_c^2+\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )^2}{4}+(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon }\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon }{2})^2]+4t_c\gamma _{12}(\epsilon \overline{\epsilon }\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon }{2})\right\},$$
(15)
with $`C_1`$ the same as Eq. (13).

First, let us consider the case with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =0`$. It follows from Eqs. (12)-(13) that $`G(\epsilon )`$ has two resonances, corresponding to the bonding and antibonding states, at the energies

$$\epsilon _\pm =\overline{\epsilon }\pm \sqrt{t_c^2\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )^2}{4}},$$
(16)
which in general differ from the eigenvalues for the isolate molecule, $`\epsilon _\pm ^0=\overline{\epsilon }\pm t_c`$. The resonances can be distinguished only when $`|t_c|>|\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma |/2`$, and the separation between them decreases as $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma |/2`$ approaches $`|t_c|`$. Thus, the level attraction produced by the connection to the leads becomes smaller as the coupling strength $`\gamma _2`$ increases, up to vanishing when $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1`$, where the bonding and antibonding states coincide with those of the isolated molecule. A similar level attraction is reported by Kubala *et al.* in Ref. ddotp1  in an Aharonov-Bohm ring with a quantum dot in each of its arms.

We notice also that the conductance vanishes at the Fermi energy

$$\epsilon _A=\overline{\epsilon }+t_c\overline{\gamma }/\gamma _{12},$$
(17)
provided $`\gamma _20,\gamma _1`$. This antiresonance-like behavior, characterized by strictly zero transmission, is a consequence of destructive quantum interference between the different pathways through the dots, and does not exist for the connection in series, where only one possible pathway exists. Also, it can be shown that $`G(\epsilon )`$ reaches the quantum limit $`2e^2/h`$ at specific values of the energy provided $`|t_c||\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma |/2`$. For the molecule connected in series perfect transmission requires that the interdot coupling strength be at least $`\gamma _1/2`$, while in the parallel configuration with a weak interdot coupling it behaves as an ideal channel if the dot-lead coupling strengths are all of similar magnitude. Without loss of generality we can set $`\overline{\epsilon }=0`$, convention we adopt in what follows.

In Fig. 2 we have plotted the conductance as a function of the Fermi energy for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =0`$, $`t_c=\gamma _1`$, and different values of $`\gamma _2`$. For the configuration in series (Fig. 2a) the bonding and antibonding resonances are clearly resolved. For $`\gamma _20,\gamma _1`$, as in Figs. 2(b) and (c), the conductance exhibits the antiresonance mentioned above, and there is a progressive increase (reduction) of the width of the bonding (antibonding) resonance, as $`\gamma _2`$ becomes larger ($`\gamma _2<\gamma _1`$). When $`\gamma _2=\gamma _{1\text{ }}`$(Fig 2d) the antiresonance and the peak associated to the antibonding state are no longer present.

It can be shown that the conductance for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =0`$ is composed by a Breit-Wigner and a Fano line shape centered at the bonding and antibonding energies, respectively. Defining the quantities $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_+`$ by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pm =\overline{\gamma }\pm \gamma _{12},$$
(18)
in the limit $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ and around $`\epsilon =t_c`$, $`G(\epsilon )`$ can be approximated by

$$G(\epsilon )\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_+^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_+^2+(\epsilon +t_c)^2},$$
(19)
and around $`\epsilon =t_c`$, by the Fano line shape of width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$

$$G(\epsilon )\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_+^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_+^2+4t_c^2}\frac{(Q+e_{})^2}{1+e_{}^2},$$
(20)
where $`Q=2t_c/\mathrm{\Gamma }_+`$ and $`e_{}=(\epsilon t_c)/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}0)`$. The width of the bonding resonance $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_+`$ ranges from $`\gamma _1/2`$ for the connection in series to $`2\gamma _1`$ in the symmetrical case, while $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ decreases from $`\gamma _1/2`$ to become infinitely small when $`\gamma _2`$ approaches $`\gamma _1`$. A similar line reduction in the conductance spectrum is discussed in Ref. 2channel  in a junction with two resonant impurities. This line narrowing (widening) in the conductance can be interpreted as an increase (reduction) of the lifetime $`\tau =\mathrm{}/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the corresponding molecular state, with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ the associated linewidth. The strong narrowing of the Fano peak when $`\gamma _2`$ is close to $`\gamma _1`$ is a signal of slow transitions between the antibonding state and the leads. The lifetime of the antibonding state becomes infinitely long when $`\gamma _2`$ approaches $`\gamma _1.`$ Typically, the $`\gamma `$’s are of the order of $`meV`$’s, so that the lifetimes of quantum dots attached to leads in series are of the order of $`picoseconds`$. However, if in the present configuration $`\gamma _1=10`$ $`meV`$ and $`\gamma _2=9.9`$ $`meV`$, one obtains $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}=5.5\times 10^4`$ $`meV`$, then the lifetime of the antibonding state is $`\tau _{}33`$ $`ns`$, that is, four orders of magnitude larger. It is interesting to note that, as follows from expressions (12)-(13) and as displayed by Fig. 2(d), when $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1`$, the Fano resonance entirely disappears and the conductance reduces exactly to the Lorentzian

$$G(\epsilon )=\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{4\gamma _1^2}{(\epsilon +t_c)^2+4\gamma _1^2},$$
(21)
expression with the form of the conductance of a single quantum dot centered at the bonding energy, with an effective line broadening $`\gamma _e=2\gamma _1`$. This would indicate that only the bonding state contributes to the transmission through the molecule.

Additional insight into the physics underlying these results can be obtained by examining the local density of states in each of the quantum dots. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =0`$ the density of states at both quantum dots is the same, and the electron has the same probability of being found at one or the other (covalent limit). It is straightforward to show that $`\rho _{1,2}=\rho `$ is a superposition of two Lorentzians of widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ at the bonding and antibonding energies, respectively,

$$\rho (\epsilon )=\frac{1}{2\pi }\left[\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_+}{(\epsilon +t_c)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_+^2}+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}}{(\epsilon t_c)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^2}\right].$$
(22)
Fig. 3 shows this quantity as a function of the energy for the same parameters used in Fig. 2. As we see, the local density of states is the simple superposition of two Lorentzians, one wide and one narrow as one approaches the symmetric configuration. For $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1`$, the Lorenztian centered at the bonding energy acquires the width $`2\gamma _1`$, while the one at the antibonding energy becomes a delta function. This last result indicates that the antibonding state turns totally localized in the molecule. In fact, it is straightforward to show that the Green function of this state ($`G_{aa}^r(t)=i\theta (t)\{d_a(t),d_a^{}(0)\}`$, where $`d_a=(d_1d_2)/\sqrt{2}`$) obeys the equation of motion of an isolated state.

Now, let us discuss how a finite difference in the energies of the different quantum dots modifies the results found in the fully symmetrical situation. When $`\epsilon _1\epsilon _2`$ and $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1`$ the conductance takes the form

$$G(\epsilon )=\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{4\gamma _1^2(t_c\epsilon )^2}{C_2}$$
(23)
with

$$C_2=\left[(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon }{2})^2+(t_c\epsilon )(t_c+\epsilon )\right]^2+4\gamma _1^2(t_c\epsilon )^2.$$
(24)
Now the antiresonance takes place in $`\epsilon _A=t_c`$ and the resonances are further apart than for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =0`$, as one would expect, with their positions depending quadratically on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon `$. As before, the conductance is a convolution of a Lorentzian at the bonding energy and a Fano line shape at the antibonding energy. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon t_c`$ the Lorentzian has a constant line broadening $`2\gamma _1`$,

$$G(\epsilon )\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{4\gamma _1^2}{(\epsilon \epsilon _b)^2+4\gamma _1^2},$$
(25)
with $`\epsilon _b=[t_c+(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon )^2/(8t_c)]`$. The Fano line shape has a width dependent of the difference of energies of the quantum dots levels, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_a=\gamma _1(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon )^2/[8(t_c^2+\gamma _1^2)]`$,

$$G(\epsilon )\frac{2e^2}{h}\frac{\gamma _1^2}{\gamma _1^2+t_c^2}\frac{(e_a+Q)^2}{1+e_a^2},$$
(26)
where $`e_a=[\epsilon t_c(1+\mathrm{\Gamma }_a/\gamma _1)]/\mathrm{\Gamma }_a`$ and $`Q=t_c/\gamma _1`$. Fig. 4 shows the conductance for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =\gamma _1/2`$ and $`t_c=\gamma _1`$, together with the corresponding pure Breit-Wigner and Fano curves given by Eqs. (25) and (26). Notice that the line broadening of the Fano peak depends quadratically on the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon `$, but differences of energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon `$ of the order of $`\gamma _1`$ result in Fano peaks narrow enough; for instance, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon =\gamma _1=t_c`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_a=\gamma _1/16\gamma _1`$.

The local densities of states $`\rho _1`$ and $`\rho _2`$ are, respectively,

$$\rho _1(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon 2t_c+2\epsilon )^2}{4C_2},$$
(27)
$$\rho _2(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon +2t_c2\epsilon )^2}{4C_2},$$
(28)
and, as observed in Fig.5, are the superposition of a Breit-Wigner resonance close to the bonding energy and a Fano line shape around the antibonding energy, similarly to the conductance.

It can be seen from the above analysis that for quantum dots with different energies, both molecular states always contribute to the conductance.

## IV Conclusions

In this work, we studied the conductance and density of states at zero temperature of a quantum dot molecule attached to leads in the range between a connection in series and a symmetric parallel configuration. We found that the conductance is composed of Breit-Wigner and Fano line shapes at the bonding and antibonding energies, respectively, with their line broadenings controlled by the asymmetry of the configuration. The narrowing (widening) of a line in the conductance can be interpreted as an increase (reduction) of the lifetime of the corresponding molecular state. From the densities of states it can be deduced that the antibonding state becomes progressively more localized as the asymmetry of the configuration is reduced. Surprisingly, when the configuration is completely symmetrical the tunneling through the antibonding state is totally suppressed and the bonding state is the only one participating in the transmission. In this limit, the antibonding becomes a coherent localized state with zero localization length. The strong reduction of the decoherence processes exhibited by the present system may have applications in quantum computing.

###### Acknowledgements.

F. C. and M. L. L. d. G. were supported in part by Cátedra Presidencial en Ciencia, and F. C. also received support from FONDECYT, grant 1020829. P. A. O. would like to thank financial support from Milenio ICM P99-135-F and FONDECYT under grant 1020269.


text:
# Effective inter-band coupling in 𝑀𝑔𝐵₂ due to anharmonic phonons.

## I Introduction.

The electronic structure of the $`40`$ K superconductor $`MgB_2`$ is characterized by the presence at the Fermi level of two hybrid bands ($`\sigma `$ and $`\pi )`$ of very different character. This feature reflects itself in the experimental evidence of two gaps, which, in the absence of magnetic fields, have a common critical temperature. This implies an interaction between the $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ bands contributing to the Fermi surface. The microscopic origin of this interaction is, to the best of our knowledge, not yet clarified. The present work suggests that it might be traced to the unusual phononic structure of $`MgB_2.`$ The dominant electron- phonon interaction is of the Su-Schrieffer- Heeger (SSH) type, namely a modulation of the hopping due to the vibration of the Boron ions along the inter-site bond, . The unusual features are the presence of anharmonic contributions (up to fourth order in the displacements) to the phononic Hamiltonian, and of both a linear and a quadratic term in the SSH interaction. Our aim is to give a qualitative picture of the issue by discussing a physically transparent model, but with no ambition of giving detailed quantitative results. However, we also show that our model is quantitatively consistent with the numerical results of Refs.

## II The electronic Hamiltonian.

Our model of the electronic structure of $`MgB_2`$ by a Hamiltonian has two bands, labelled $`c`$ and $`d,`$ which hybridize through an inter-site hopping term. Then, in the real space representation, the bare electronic Hamiltonian reads:

$$H_{el}=\epsilon ^c\underset{l\sigma }{}n_{l\sigma }^c+\epsilon ^d\underset{l\sigma }{}n_{l\sigma }^d+\underset{lj\sigma }{}\left[t_{lj}^{cc}c_{l\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+t_{lj}^{dd}d_{l\sigma }^{}d_{j\sigma }\right]+\underset{lj\sigma }{}t_{lj}^{cd}\left(c_{l\sigma }^{}d_{j\sigma }+d_{j\sigma }^{}c_{l\sigma }\right)$$
(1)
where $`_{lj}`$ means summing on the $`z`$ nearest neigbors $`j`$ of a given site $`l`$, and then on $`l.`$ In $`MgB_2`$ one expects that $`t_{lj}^{cc},t_{lj}^{dd}t_{lj}^{cd}`$ ,. The electron-phonon coupling parameters in the SSH scenario are derivatives of the hopping amplitudes with respect to the inter-site distance. By using $`c_{l\sigma }^{}=N^{1/2}_kc_{k\sigma }^{}\mathrm{exp}\left(ikR_l\right)`$ we pass to the reciprocal space representation, yielding :

$$H_{el}=\underset{k\sigma }{}\left(\epsilon ^c+zt_k^{cc}\right)n_{k\sigma }^c+\underset{k\sigma }{}\left(\epsilon ^d+zt_k^{dd}\right)n_{k\sigma }^d+\underset{k\sigma }{}zt_k^{cd}\left(c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }+d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }\right)$$
(2)
where $`t_k^{xy}=z^1_jt_{lj}^{xy}\mathrm{exp}\left[ik\left(R_lR_j\right)\right]`$ with $`x,y=c,d`$. To diagonalize $`H_{el}`$ we express the bare operators $`c_{k\sigma }^{},d_{k\sigma }^{}`$ through the hybridized operators $`\alpha _{k\sigma }^{},\beta _{k\sigma }^{}`$ according to:

$$c_{k\sigma }^{}=\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\mathrm{sin}\phi _kd_{k\sigma }^{}=\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k$$
(3)
By choosing

$$\mathrm{tan}\left(2\phi _k\right)=\frac{2zt_k^{cd}}{\epsilon _k^c\epsilon _k^d+z\left(t_k^{cc}t_k^{dd}\right)}$$
(4)
$`H_{el}`$ is brought to diagonal form $`H_{el}=_{k\sigma }\left(E_k^\alpha n_{k\sigma }^\alpha +E_k^\beta n_{k\sigma }^\beta \right)`$ , with the particle energies in the hybridized bands given by:

$$E_k^\alpha =\frac{1}{2}\left[\epsilon ^c+\epsilon ^d+z\left(t_k^{cc}+t_k^{dd}\right)\right]+\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\left[\epsilon ^c\epsilon ^d+z\left(t_k^{cc}t_k^{dd}\right)\right]^2+\left(2zt_k^{cd}\right)^2}$$
(5)
$$E_k^\beta =\frac{1}{2}\left[\epsilon ^c+\epsilon ^d+z\left(t_k^{cc}+t_k^{dd}\right)\right]\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\left[\epsilon ^c\epsilon ^d+z\left(t_k^{cc}t_k^{dd}\right)\right]^2+\left(2zt_k^{cd}\right)^2}$$
(6)
## III  The phononic Hamiltonian with anharmonic terms.

Following ,  we assume that the purely phononic Hamiltonian $`H_{ph}`$ for $`MgB_2`$ has to include, apart from the usual harmonic term, also a non-negligible quartic contribution. It takes the form:

$$H_{ph}=\underset{q}{}\frac{P_qP_q}{2M}+\frac{M}{2}\underset{q}{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q^2u_qu_q+\frac{M^2}{4}\underset{qp}{}x_{qp}\mathrm{\Omega }_q^2\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2u_qu_qu_pu_p$$
(7)
where $`M`$ is the Boron mass and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_q`$ is the frequency, at the wavevector $`q`$ along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }A`$ line, of the optical mode of $`E_{2g}`$ symmetry. The parameter $`x_{qp}`$ expresses the strength of the quartic term involving the wavevectors $`\pm q`$ and $`\pm p.`$ In $`MgB_2`$, from Ref., one can estimate $`x_{qp}7.8`$ eV$`^1.`$

By quantizing the phonon field according to the usual relations:

$$u_q=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}}{2M\mathrm{\Omega }_q}}\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)P_q=i\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{2M}}\left(b_q^{}b_q\right)L_q=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}}{2M\mathrm{\Omega }_q}}$$
(8)
the harmonic part becomes $`_q\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q\left(b_q^{}b_q+\frac{1}{2}\right)`$. When quantizing the quartic term, we neglect the terms with different numbers of creation and destruction operators and keep the remaining four-operator products only when diagonal. Namely, we approximate $`b_q^{}b_q^{}b_pb_p\left(\delta _{p,q}+\delta _{p,q}\right)\nu _q\nu _q`$ , where $`b_q^{}b_q=\nu _q`$. The quartic contribution then reduces to:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{qp}{}}x_{qp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}}\right)\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)\left(b_p^{}+b_p\right)\left(b_p^{}+b_p\right)`$

$`4{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+\nu _q\right){\displaystyle \underset{p}{}}x_{qp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}}\right)\left(1+\delta _{qp}\right)`$

$`+4{\displaystyle \underset{qp}{}}x_{qp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}}\right)\nu _q\nu _p\left(1+\delta _{q,p}\right)+2{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}}\right)\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q\right){\displaystyle \underset{p}{}}x_{qp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}}\right)`$

$$2\underset{qp}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}\right)+\underset{qp}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{4}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}\right)$$
(9)
The product $`\nu _q\nu _p`$ is approximated in the MFA fashion, i.e. $`\nu _q\nu _p\nu _q\nu _p+\nu _q\nu _p\nu _p\nu _q`$ . Putting together the constant terms, we can rewrite Eq.9 as:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+\nu _q\right){\displaystyle \underset{p}{}}x_{qp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{2}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+\nu _p\right)\left(1+\delta _{q,p}\right)`$

$$+\underset{q}{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q\right)\underset{p}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{8}\right)+\mathrm{const}.$$
(10)
Adding the harmonic contribution and defining

$$X_q1+\underset{p}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{2}\right)\left(\frac{1}{2}+\nu _p\right)\left(1+\delta _{q,p}\right)$$
(11)
we obtain the purely phononic Hamiltonian as:

$$H_{ph}=\underset{q}{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_qX_q\left(\frac{1}{2}+\nu _q\right)+\underset{q}{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q\right)\underset{p}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{8}\right)+\mathrm{const}.$$
(12)
This form can be diagonalized by a ”squeezing ” transformation $`e^S\mathrm{exp}\left[_q\eta _q\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}b_qb_q\right)\right]`$ under the condition that

$$\mathrm{tanh}\left(2\eta _q\right)=\frac{1}{X_q}\underset{p}{}x_{qp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{4}\right)$$
(13)
Notice that Eq.13 yields $`\eta _q<0.`$ The diagonalized Hamiltonian $`e^SH_{ph}e^S`$ can now be written as:

$$e^SH_{ph}e^S=\underset{q}{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_q\left[X_q\mathrm{cosh}\left(2\eta _q\right)+2\mathrm{sinh}\left(2\eta _q\right)\underset{p}{}x_{qp}\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{8}\right]\left(b_q^{}b_q+\frac{1}{2}\right)+\mathrm{const}.$$
(14)
By substituting $`\eta _q`$ from Eq.13 into Eq.14, the renormalized frequency $`\omega _q`$ of the harmonic Hamiltonian for the squeezed phonons is written explicitly as:

$$\omega _q=\mathrm{\Omega }_qX_q\left[\sqrt{1\mathrm{tanh}^2\left(2\eta _q\right)}\right]$$
(15)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_qX_q`$ is the phonon frequency entering the quadratic part of the unsqueezed phononic Hamiltonian (see. Eq.12). Thus $`\omega _q`$ is reduced (softened) with respect to the bare frequency $`X_q\mathrm{\Omega }_q`$, in accordance with the findings of Refs..

## IV The linear electron-phonon interaction.

The linear part of the SSH electron-phonon interaction is written, in real space, as

$$H_{ep}^{(1)}=\underset{lj\sigma }{}\left[g_{lj}^{cc}c_{l\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+g_{lj}^{dd}d_{l\sigma }^{}d_{j\sigma }\right]\left(u_lu_j\right)+\underset{lj\sigma }{}g_{lj}^{cd}\left(d_{l\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+c_{j\sigma }^{}d_{l\sigma }\right)\left(u_lu_j\right)$$
(16)
where $`g_{lj}^{cc}=t_{lj}^{cc}/\left(u_lu_j\right)|_0=g_{jl}^{cc}`$ etc., are the coupling constants.

To obtain the Fourier-transformed form of Eq.16 we define $`g_k^{cc}=(1/z)_jg_{lj}^{cc}\mathrm{exp}(ik\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj})`$ so that

$$\frac{z}{2}\left(g_{kq}^{cc}+g_k^{cc}g_{(kq)}^{cc}g_k^{cc}\right)=i\underset{j}{}g_{lj}^{cc}\left\{\mathrm{sin}\left[\left(kq\right)\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj}\right]\mathrm{sin}\left[k\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj}\right]\right\}\gamma _{k,q}^{cc}$$
(17)
with analogous relations defining $`\gamma _{k,q}^{dd}`$ and $`\gamma _{k,q}^{cd}`$. Quantization of the phonons according to Eq.8 leads to:

$$H_{ep}^{(1)}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{kq\sigma }{}L_q\left[\gamma _{k,q}^{cc}c_{k\sigma }^{}c_{kq\sigma }+\gamma _{k,q}^{dd}d_{k\sigma }^{}d_{kq\sigma }+\gamma _{k,q}^{cd}\left(c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{kq\sigma }+d_{kq\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }\right)\right]\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)$$
(18)
When transformed to the hybridized fermion representation $`H_{ep}^{(1)}`$ reads:

$`H_{ep}^{(1)}=`$

$$=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{kq\sigma }{}L_q\left[\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \alpha }\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \beta }\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \beta }\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \alpha }\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{kq,\sigma }\right]\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)$$
(19)
where the effective couplings are defined as:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \alpha }=\gamma _{k,kq}^{cc}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}+\gamma _{k,kq}^{dd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}2\gamma _{k,kq}^{cd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}$$
(20)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \beta }=\gamma _{k,kq}^{cc}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}+\gamma _{k,kq}^{dd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}+2\gamma _{k,kq}^{cd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}$$
(21)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \beta }=\gamma _{k,kq}^{cc}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}\gamma _{k,kq}^{dd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}+\gamma _{k,kq}^{cd}\left(\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}+\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}\right)$$
(22)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \alpha }=\gamma _{k,kq}^{cc}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}\gamma _{k,kq}^{dd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}\gamma _{k,kq}^{cd}\left(\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _{kq}+\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _{kq}\right)$$
(23)
## V The quadratic electron-phonon interaction.

According to Refs., the electron-phonon Hamiltonian has to include also a quadratic term, which we write in real space as:

$$H_{ep}^{(2)}=\underset{lj\sigma }{}\left[f_{lj}^{cc}c_{l\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+f_{lj}^{dd}d_{l\sigma }^{}d_{j\sigma }\right]\left(u_lu_j\right)^2+\underset{lj\sigma }{}f_{lj}^{cd}\left(d_{l\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+c_{j\sigma }^{}d_{l\sigma }\right)\left(u_lu_j\right)^2$$
(24)
where $`f_{lj}^{cc}=^2t_{lj}^{cc}/\left(u_lu_j\right)^2|_0`$ $`=f_{jl}^{cc}`$ , etc. By defining $`f_k^{cc}=z^1_jf_{lj}^{cc}e^{ik\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj}}`$ and the coefficients $`F_{kpq}^{xy}=z\left(f_p^{xy}+f_k^{xy}2f_{kq}^{xy}\right)`$ with $`x,y=c,d,`$ the Fourier transform reads:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{kpq\sigma }{}}c_{k\sigma }^{}c_{p\sigma }u_qu_{kpq}F_{kpq}^{cc}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{kpq\sigma }{}}d_{k\sigma }^{}d_{p\sigma }u_qu_{kpq}F_{kpq}^{dd}`$

$$+\frac{1}{N}\underset{kpq\sigma }{}\left(d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{p\sigma }u_qu_{kpq}+c_{p\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }u_qu_{pkq}\right)F_{kpq}^{cd}$$
(25)
To pass over to the hybridized-fermion representation, let us define for short:

$$F_{kpq}^{\alpha \alpha }=F_{kpq}^{cc}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _p+F_{kpq}^{dd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _pF_{kpq}^{cd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _p$$
(26)
$$F_{kpq}^{\beta \beta }=F_{kpq}^{cc}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _p+F_{kpq}^{dd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _p+F_{kpq}^{cd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _p$$
(27)
$$F_{kpq}^{\alpha \beta }=F_{kpq}^{cc}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _pF_{kpq}^{dd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _pF_{kpq}^{cd}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _p$$
(28)
$$F_{kpq}^{\beta \alpha }=F_{kpq}^{cc}\mathrm{sin}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _pF_{kpq}^{dd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{sin}\phi _p+F_{kpq}^{cd}\mathrm{cos}\phi _k\mathrm{cos}\phi _p$$
(29)
Then, the quadratic coupling can be cast in the form:

$`H_{ep}^{(2)}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{kpq}{}}\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{p\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\alpha \alpha }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{p\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\beta \beta }+\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{p\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\alpha \beta }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{p\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\beta \alpha }\right)u_qu_{kpq}`$

$$+\frac{1}{N}\underset{kpq}{}\left(\alpha _{p\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\alpha \alpha }+\beta _{p\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\beta \beta }+\alpha _{p\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\beta \alpha }+\beta _{p\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }F_{kpq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)u_qu_{(kpq)}$$
(30)
Next, we quantize the phonons according to Eq.8. By enforcing $`k=p`$ we take into account only the terms which do not change the number of phonons in a given mode:

$$u_{\pm q}u_{\pm (kpq)}u_qu_q\delta _{pk}=\delta _{pk}L_q^2\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q+\nu _q+\nu _q+1\right)$$
(31)
Let us stress that our aim is to show that there are some contributions to $`H_{ep}^{(2)}`$ which provide an effective inter-band coupling. We do not claim to be able to treat all the terms in $`H_{ep}^{(2)}`$: we just want to select the subset of ”hot ”terms. Selecting the $`p=q`$ terms, then, Eq.30 can be written compactly as

$`H_{ep}^{(2)}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{kq}{}}\left(2F_{kkq}^{\alpha \alpha }n_{k\sigma }^\alpha +2F_{kkq}^{\beta \beta }n_{k\sigma }^\beta \right)L_q^2\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q+\nu _q+\nu _q+1\right)`$

$$+\frac{1}{N}\underset{kq}{}\left(F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }+F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }\right)L_q^2\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q+\nu _q+\nu _q+1\right)$$
(32)
## VI  <br>The electron-phonon Hamiltonian in the squeezed phonon representation.

Let us now introduce the squeezed phonon representation also for $`H_{ep}^{(1)}+H_{ep}^{(2)}`$. By using the relation $`e^S\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)e^S=e^{\eta _q}\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)`$ the linear coupling term becomes:

$`e^SH_{ep}^{(1)}e^S=`$

$$=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{kq\sigma }{}L_qe^{\eta _q}\left[\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \alpha }\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \beta }\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\alpha \beta }\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{kq,\sigma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{k,kq}^{\beta \alpha }\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{kq,\sigma }\right]\left(b_q^{}+b_q\right)$$
(33)
Then the linear coupling has a reduce amplitude, as $`\eta _q<0`$ (see Eq.13), consistently with the numerical analysis of Ref. .

For the quadratic part $`H_{ep}^{(2)}`$ we get:

$`e^SH_{ep}^{(2)}e^S={\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{kq}{}}\left(2F_{kkq}^{\alpha \alpha }n_{k\sigma }^\alpha +2F_{kkq}^{\beta \beta }n_{k\sigma }^\beta \right)L_q^2e^{2\eta _q}\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q+\nu _q+\nu _q+1\right)`$

$$+\frac{1}{N}\underset{kq}{}\left(F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }+F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }\right)L_q^2e^{2\eta _q}\left(b_q^{}b_q^{}+b_qb_q+\nu _q+\nu _q+1\right)$$
(34)
The Eqs.33 and 34 show that the phonons induce an effective inter-band coupling through both the linear and the quadratic SSH interaction. However, the quadratic term in the second line of Eq.34 is the only one providing an inter-band coupling term which is non-vanishing even if $`\nu _q=0.`$ It reads:

$$L_q^2e^{2\eta _q^0}\left(F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }+F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }\right)$$
(35)
where $`\mathrm{tanh}\left(2\eta _q^0\right)=lim_{\nu _q0}\mathrm{tanh}\left(2\eta _q\right).`$ It is interesting to discuss its behaviour in the limit of small hybridization of the bare bands. From the definition of $`F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha },F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }`$ (Eq.28 and 29) and of $`\phi _k(`$ Eq.4 ) one sees that, when the inter-band hybridization $`t_{lj}^{cd}0,`$ then either $`\phi _k0,`$ or $`\phi _k\pm \pi /2.`$ In the two cases we have, from Eqs.28 and 29:

$$\underset{\phi _k0}{lim}F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }=0\underset{\phi _k0}{lim}F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }=F_{kkq}^{cd}\underset{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}{lim}F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }=F_{kkq}^{cd}\underset{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}{lim}F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }=0$$
(36)
The reason for the minus sign in $`lim_{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }=F_{kkq}^{cd}`$ can be understood by recalling that, from Eq.3, $`lim_{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}c_{k\sigma }^{}\left(\phi _k\right)=\pm \beta _{k\sigma }^{}`$ while $`lim_{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}d_{k\sigma }^{}\left(\phi _k\right)=\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}`$ . It follows:

$$\underset{\phi _k\pm \pi /2}{lim}\left(F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }+F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }\right)=F_{kkq}^{cd}\left(d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }\right)=F_{kkq}^{cd}\left(d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }+c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }\right)$$
(37)
Hence in both cases $`\phi _k0,\pm \pi /2`$ we get the same expression for the effective inter-band coupling term, namely:

$`\underset{t_{lj}^{cd}0}{lim}\left(F_{kkq}^{\beta \alpha }+F_{kkq}^{\alpha \beta }\right)\left(\alpha _{k\sigma }^{}\beta _{k\sigma }+\beta _{k\sigma }^{}\alpha _{k\sigma }\right)L_q^2e^{2\eta _q}=F_{kkq}^{cd}L_q^2e^{2\eta _q}\left(d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }+c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }\right)=`$

$$=L_q^2e^{2\eta _q}\underset{lj}{}f_{lj}^{cd}\left\{\mathrm{cos}\left(k\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj}\right)\mathrm{cos}\left[\left(kq\right)\mathrm{\Delta }_{lj}\right]\right\}\left(d_{k\sigma }^{}c_{k\sigma }+c_{k\sigma }^{}d_{k\sigma }\right)$$
(38)
Apart from geometric factors, this term depends only on the intensity of the squeezing (through $`e^{2\eta _q})`$ and on the amplitude of the quadratic inter-band SSH electron-phonon coupling $`f_{lj}^{cd}`$. As $`f_{lj}^{cd}`$ is a second derivative of $`t_{lj}^{cd},`$ it can be appreciable even if $`t_{lj}^{cd}`$ itself is very small. Different evaluations of $`f_{lj}^{cd}`$ all agree that it has an appreciable value.

The weakening of the linear and quadratic electron-phonon interactions is expressed by the coefficients $`e^{\eta _q}`$ and $`e^{2\eta _q}`$ . Their value is, in turn, set by the diagonalization condition of the anharmonic phonon Hamiltonian, Eq.13 according to:

$$e^{2\eta _q}=\sqrt{\frac{1+\mathrm{tanh}\left(2\eta _q\right)}{1\mathrm{tanh}\left(2\eta _q\right)}}$$
(39)
Therefore the squeezing effect related to the anharmonicity of the phonons also reduces the electron-phonon interactions.

To conclude, let us check if the link that our model establishes between the softening of the harmonic frequency and the reduction of the electron-phonon coupling strength is consistent with the estimates of those quantities as given, e.g., in Refs.,  and  . The softening of the frequency is evaluated as $`15\%`$., $`25\%`$ and $`20\%`$. For our check we assume the intermediate estimate by Ref.. If $`\omega _q/X_q\mathrm{\Omega }_q=0.80`$ then, from Eq.15 , it follows $`\mathrm{Th}\left(2\eta _q\right)=0.60`$ and therefore $`e^{\eta _q}=0.70`$, which agrees with the estimate  of a weakening of the linear electron- phonon coupling by $`30\%`$.

## VII Conclusions.

We have presented an analytic treatment of a two-band Hamiltonian with anharmonic phonons and both linear and quadratic electron-phonon interactions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger type, which should represent the essential physics of $`MgB_2.`$ We have shown that the numerical results of Ref. about the phononic features of the material, namely the softening of the effective harmonic frequency $`\omega _q`$ and the reduction of the linear electron-phonon coupling amplitude, can be interpreted as due to the phonons accomodating themselves in a ”squeezed ”state. Additionally, we have found that the quadratic electron-phonon interaction generates an effective coupling between the hybridized bands due to virtual phonons.

###### Acknowledgement 1

We thank J. Spałek and J. R. Iglesias for useful discussions.