Electron correlation in carbon nanotubes: Superconductivity versus localization

We study the effect of electron correlation in the armchair carbon nanotubes (CNT). We model the carbon nanotube as a tubule with electrons confined to the surface of the tubule by an attractive delta-function potential. We derived the pair interaction potential between two electrons in the tubule incorporating short-range and exchange correlation. Dispersions of plasmon modes at different values of orbital momentum (l) and single-particle excitations are derived as well. We find that the plasma modes are not Landau damped and the lowest mode has acoustic behavior. We also find that the multiple scattering of an electron on the plasma acoustic mode leads to the so-called plasmaron quasiparticle and self-localization of an electron in the polarization well. We also show that there is a competition between superconducting correlation and self-localization due to the electron plasma interaction.