Exchange and correlation effects in the relaxation of hot electrons in noble metals

We report extensive first-principles calculations of the inelastic lifetime of low-energy electrons in the noble metals Cu, Ag, and Au. The quasiparticle self-energy is computed with full inclusion of exchange and correlation (XC) effects, in the framework of the GWΓ approximation of many-body theory. Although exchange and correlation may considerably reduce both the screening and the bare interaction of hot electrons with the Fermi gas, these corrections have opposite signs. Our results indicate that the overall effect of short-range XC is small and GWΓ linewidths are close to their XC-free G⁰W⁰ counterparts, as occurs in the case of a free-electron gas.