On the Locality of Physics in Metals, Semiconductors, and Insulators

We present an analytical study of the spatial decay rate $\gamma$ of the one-particle density matrix $\rho(\vec r,\vec r')\sim\exp(-\gamma|\vec r-\vec r'|)$ for systems described by single particle orbitals in periodic potentials in arbitrary dimensions. This decay reflects electronic locality in condensed matter systems and is also crucial for O(N) density functional methods. We find that $\gamma$ behaves contrary to the conventional wisdom that generically $\gamma\propto\sqrt{\Delta}$ in insulators and $\gamma\propto\sqrt{T}$ in metals, where $\Delta$ is the direct band gap and $T$ the temperature. Rather, in semiconductors $\gamma\propto\Delta$, and in metals at low temperature $\gamma\propto T$.