Bulk and surface diffusion of heavy particles in metals: A path-integral approach

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Abstract
The dynamics of a particle interacting with the electrons of a metal and moving through a lattice has been investigated. A scaling scheme based on a path-integral formulation of the problem is given which is valid for a wide range of couplings. We obtain numerical estimates for the importance of the coupling for charged particles moving within the bulk of metals or at their surfaces. Particles of charge one have couplings which lie below the threshold for self-trapping, although their values are large enough to ensure a significant influence on their dynamics at low temperatures. Finally, it is shown that a transition to a self-localized situation is in principle possible, and may be of relevance to situations where the screening cloud is slow enough as compared with the dynamics of the external particle.