Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in metals: A diagrammatic approach

We develop a formalism to study the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) response in metals based on the diagrammatic expansion for its cross section. The standard approach to the solution of the RIXS problem relies on two key approximations: short-range potentials and noninteracting conduction electrons. However, these approximations are inaccurate for charged particles in metals, where the long-range Coulomb interaction and dynamic screening effects are very important. In this work, we study how to extract important information about collective excitations in the Coulomb plasma, plasmons, and electron-hole pairs from RIXS data. We find that single- and multi-plasmon excitations can easily be distinguished by positions of the corresponding peaks, singularities, and their intensities. We also discuss the hybrid processes, where plasmon emission is accompanied by excitation of electron-hole pairs and study how they manifest themselves.