Self-Consistent Calculation of the q Dependence of the Electron-Phonon Coupling in Aluminum

A new approach is developed to calculate electron-phonon interactions in metals. The method is fully self-consistent and does not assume the rigid-ion or the rigid-muffin-tin approximation. Application is made to aluminum to compute the wave-vector—dependent electron-phonon coupling. The results are in good agreement with experimental estimates of the average coupling $\lambda$ and some previous calculations of this quantity.