Nearsightedness in Materials with Indirect Band Gaps

Abstract

We investigate the nearsightedness property in the linear tight binding model at zero Fermi-temperature. We focus on the decay property of the density matrix for materials with indirect band gaps. By representing the density matrix in reciprocal space, we establish a qualitatively sharp estimate for the exponential decay rate in homogeneous systems, possibly with localized perturbations. This work refines the estimates presented in (Ortner, Thomas & Chen, 2020) for systems with small band gaps.