Many-polaron system confined to a quantum dot: ground-state energy and optical absorption

We find for the first time the ground state energy and the optical absorption spectra for N electrons (holes) interacting with each other and with the longitudinal optical (LO) phonons at an arbitrary electron-phonon coupling strength $\alpha$ in a parabolic confinement potential. A recently developed path integral formalism for identical particles is used in order to account for the fermion statistics. The approach is applicable to closed and open shells. Using an extension of the Jensen-Feynman variational principle, the ground state energy of the N-polarons system in a parabolic confinement potential is analyzed as a function of N and $\alpha$. A ferromagnetic-to-nonmagnetic transition is shown to occur between states with different total spin of the system in the case of strong electron-phonon interaction. This transition is manifested through the optical absorption spectra and should be experimentally observable. Strong mixing between zero-phonon and one-phonon states is revealed in the optical absorption spectrum, when the confinement frequency parameter is in resonance with the LO phonon frequency ("confinement-phonon resonance"). Moments of the optical absorption spectra are calculated for a N-polaron system in a parabolic quantum dot.