Fermi-Liquid Effects on Plasma Wave Propagation in Alkali Metals

Abstract

The dispersion of plasma-wave propagation in the alkali metals sodium and potassium has been observed to deviate significantly from that expected for a noninteracting electron gas. Modifications of the dispersion have been calculated using the Landau Fermi-liquid theory and a quantitative evaluation of the first two moments of the interaction function has been made for the case of potassium.