Spectral properties of the 2D Holstein polaron

The two-dimensional Holstein model is studied by means of direct Lanczos diagonalization preserving the full dynamics and quantum nature of phonons. We present numerical exact results for the single-particle spectral function, the polaronic quasiparticle weight, and the optical conductivity. The polaron band dispersion is derived both from exact diagonalization of small lattices and analytic calculation of the polaron self-energy.