  The tunneling density of states exhibits anomalies (cusps, algebraic
suppressions, and pseudogaps) at the Fermi energy in a wide variety of
low-dimensional and strongly correlated electron systems. We argue that in many
cases these spectral anomalies are caused by an infrared catastrophe in the
screening response to the sudden introduction of a new electron into the system
during a tunneling event. A nonperturbative functional-integral method is
introduced to account for this effect, making use of methods developed for the
x-ray edge singularity problem. The formalism is applicable to lattice or
continuum models of any dimensionality, with or without translational
invariance. An approximate version of the technique is applied to the 1D
electron gas and the 2D Hall fluid, yielding qualitatively correct results.
