Breakdown of the Migdal-Eliashberg theory: A determinant quantum Monte Carlo study

The superconducting (SC) and charge-density-wave (CDW) susceptibilities of the two dimensional Holstein model are computed using determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC), and compared with results computed using the Migdal-Eliashberg (ME) approach. We access temperatures as low as 20 times less than the Fermi energy, $E_F$, which are still above the SC transition. We find that the SC susceptibility at low $T$ agrees quantitatively with the ME theory up to a dimensionless electron-phonon coupling $\lambda_0 \approx 0.4$ but deviates dramatically for larger $\lambda_0$. We find that for large $\lambda_0$ and small phonon frequency $\omega_0 \ll E_F$ CDW ordering is favored and the preferred CDW ordering vector is uncorrelated with any obvious feature of the Fermi surface.