Hole dynamics in noble metals

Hole dynamics;in noble metals (Cu and An) is investigated by means of first -principles many-body calculations. While holes in a free-electron gas are known to live shorter than electrons with the same excitation energy, our r esults indicate that d holes in noble metals exhibit longer inelastic lifet imes than excited sp electrons, in agreement with experiment. The density o f states available for d-hole decay is larger than that for the decay of ex cited electrons; however, the small overlap between d and sp states below t he Fermi level increases the d-hole lifetime. The impact of d-hole dynamics on electron-hole correlation effects is also addressed.