Equivalence of two definitions of the effective mass of a polaron (Q2016507)

Two definitions of the effective mass of a particle interacting with a quantum field, such as a polaron, are considered and shown to be equal in models similar to the Fröhlich polaron model. These are: 1. Mass defined by the low momentum energy \(E(P)\approx E(0)+P^2/2M\) of the translation invariant system constrained to have momentum \(P\). 2. Mass \(M\) of a simple particle in an arbitrary slowly varying external potential, \(V\), described by the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation, whose ground state energy equals that of the combined particle/field system in a bound state in the same \(V\).