Fermi surface determination from momentum density projections

Abstract

The problem of determining a metal’s Fermi surface from measured projections of the electron or electron/positron momentum densities, such as those obtained by Compton scattering or angular correlation of positron annihilation radiation, respectively, is examined in a Bayesian formulation. A consistent approach with an explicit treatment of the Fermi surface already at the reconstruction stage is presented, and its advantages compared to previous practice are discussed. A validation of the proposed method on simulated data shows its systematic accuracy to be very satisfactory and its statistical precision on modest experimental data to be surprisingly good.

Keywords

• positron annihilation
• Fermi surface
• reconstruction
• electronic structure