We develop the theory of the nonadiabatic phonon self-energy arising from coupling to electrons with finite linewidths using the spectral representation of Green's functions. Our formalism naturally includes the contribution from the intraband electronic transitions (as well as the interband ones) at all electron wave vectors to the phonon linewidths, which is forbidden for zone-center optical phonons if infinitesimal electron linewidths are used. As a proof of principle, we use the theory to calculate the linewidth of the doubly degenerate, zone-center optical $E_{2\mathrm{g}}$ phonons of graphene as a function of the chemical potential. The calculated phonon linewidths obtained with finite electron linewidths differ significantly from those obtained with infinitesimal electron linewidths even at low temperatures. Intraband electronic transitions play an important role in making this difference. Moreover, only the results accounting for the finite electron linewidths are in quantitative agreement with the available experimental data. The presented formalism is suitable for first-principles calculations.

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• Electron-phonon coupling
• Phonons
• Graphene
• Lifetimes & widths
• Green's function methods