No Arabic abstract
We consider Dirac particles confined to a thin strip, e.g., graphene nanoribbon, with rough edges. The confinement is implemented by a large mass in the Hamiltonian or by imposing boundary conditions directly on the graphene wave-functions. The scattering of a rough edge leads to a transverse channel-mixing and provides crucial limitation to the quantum transport in narrow ribbons. We solve the problem perturbatively and find the edge scattering contribution to the conductivity, which can be measured experimentally. The case of Schroedinger particles in a strip is also addressed, and the comparison between Schroedinger and Dirac transport is made. Anomalies associated with quasi-one dimensionality, such as Van Hove singularities and localization, are discussed. The violation of the Matthiessen rule is pointed out.
The half filled Landau level is expected to be approximately particle-hole symmetric, which requires an extension of the Halperin-Lee-Read (HLR) theory of the compressible state observed at this filling. Recent work indicates that, when particle-hole symmetry is preserved, the composite Fermions experience a quantized $pi$-Berry phase upon winding around the composite Fermi-surface, analogous to Dirac fermions at the surface of a 3D topological insulator. In contrast, the effective low energy theory of the composite fermion liquid originally proposed by HLR lacks particle-hole symmetry and has vanishing Berry phase. In this paper, we explain how thermoelectric transport measurements can be used to test the Dirac nature of the composite Fermions by quantitatively extracting this Berry phase. First we point out that longitudinal thermopower (Seebeck effect) is non-vanishing due to the unusual nature of particle hole symmetry in this context and is not sensitive to the Berry phase. In contrast, we find that off-diagonal thermopower (Nernst effect) is directly related to the topological structure of the composite Fermi surface, vanishing for zero Berry phase and taking its maximal value for $pi$ Berry phase. In contrast, in purely electrical transport signatures the Berry phase contributions appear as small corrections to a large background signal, making the Nernst effect a promising diagnostic of the Dirac nature of composite fermions.
Dirac metals (gapless semi-conductors) are believed to turn into Weyl metals when perturbations, which break either time reversal symmetry or inversion symmetry, are employed. However, no experimental evidence has been reported for the existence of Weyl fermions in three dimensions. Applying magnetic fields near the topological phase transition from a topological insulator to a band insulator in Bi1-xSbx, we observe not only the weak anti-localization phenomenon in magnetoconductivity near zero magnetic fields (B < 0.4 T) but also its upturn above 0.4 T only for E // B. This incompatible coexistence between weak anti-localization and negative magnetoresistivity is attributed to the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly (topological E B term) in the presence of weak anti-localization corrections.
We consider the Dirac equation on periodic networks (quantum graphs). The self-adjoint quasi periodic boundary conditions are derived. The secular equation allowing us to find the energy spectrum of the Dirac particles on periodic quantum graphs is obtained. Band spectra of the periodic quantum graphs of different topologies are calculated. Universality of the probability to be in the spectrum for certain graph topologies is observed.
We study the competition of spin- and charge-density waves and their quantum multicritical behavior for the semimetal-insulator transitions of low-dimensional Dirac fermions. Employing the effective Gross-Neveu-Yukawa theory with two order parameters as a model for graphene and a growing number of other two-dimensional Dirac materials allows us to describe the physics near the multicritical point at which the semimetallic and the spin- and charge-density-wave phases meet. With the help of a functional renormalization group approach, we are able to reveal a complex structure of fixed points, the stability properties of which decisively depend on the number of Dirac fermions $N_f$. We give estimates for the critical exponents and observe crucial quantitative corrections as compared to the previous first-order $epsilon$ expansion. For small $N_f$, the universal behavior near the multicritical point is determined by the chiral Heisenberg universality class supplemented by a decoupled, purely bosonic, Ising sector. At large $N_f$, a novel fixed point with nontrivial couplings between all sectors becomes stable. At intermediate $N_f$, including the graphene case ($N_f = 2$) no stable and physically admissible fixed point exists. Graphenes phase diagram in the vicinity of the intersection between the semimetal, antiferromagnetic and staggered density phases should consequently be governed by a triple point exhibiting first-order transitions.
We study the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM) using the equations of motion method (EOM), the non-crossing approximation (NCA), the one-crossing approximation (OCA), and Wilsons numerical renormalization group (NRG). We calculate the density of states and the linear conductance focusing on their dependence on the chemical potential and on the temperature paying special attention to the Kondo and Coulomb blockade regimes for a large range of model parameters. We report that some standard approximations based on the EOM technique display a rather unexpected poor behavior in the Coulomb blockade regime even at high temperatures. Our study offers a critical comparison between the different methods as well as a detailed compilation of the shortcomings and limitations due the approximations involved in each technique, thus allowing for a cost-benefit analysis of the different solvers that considers both numerical precision and computational performance.