Decay properties of the one-particle Green function in real space and imaginary time

The decay properties of the one-particle Green function in real space and imaginary time are systematically studied for solids. I present an analytic solution for the homogeneous electron gas at finite and at zero temperature as well as asymptotic formulas for real metals and insulators that allow an analytic treatment in electronic-structure calculations based on a space-lime representation. The generic dependence of the decay constants on known system parameters is used to compare the scaling of reciprocal-space algorithms for the GW approximation and the space-time method.