Induced fractional valley number in graphene with topological defects

We report on the possibility of valley number fractionalization in graphene with a topological defect that is accounted for in Dirac equation by a pseudomagnetic field. The valley number fractionalization is attributable to an imbalance on the number of one particle states in one of the two Dirac points with respect to the other and it is related to the flux of the pseudomagnetic field. We also discuss the analog effect the topological defect might lead in the induced spin polarization of the charge carriers in graphene.

Fractional fermion charges induced by vector-axial and vector gauge potentials in planar graphene-like structures

We show that fermion charge fractionalization can take place in a recently proposed chiral gauge model for graphene even in the absence of Kekule distortion of the graphene honeycomb lattice. We extend the model by adding the coupling of fermions to an external magnetic field and show that the fermion charge can be fractionalized by means of only gauge potentials. It is shown that the chiral fermion charge can also have fractional value. We also relate the fractionalization of the fermion charge to the parity anomaly in an extended Quantum Electrodynamics which involves vector and vector-axial gauge fields.