Effective Field Theory for the Quantum Electrodynamics of a Graphene Wire

Abstract

We study the low-energy quantum electrodynamics of electrons and holes, in a thin graphene wire. We develop an effective field theory (EFT) based on an expansion in p/p_T, where p_T is the typical momentum of electrons and holes in the transverse direction, while p are the momenta in the longitudinal direction. We show that, to the lowest-order in (p/p_T), our EFT theory is formally equivalent to the exactly solvable Schwinger model. By exploiting such an analogy, we find that the ground state of the quantum wire contains a condensate of electron-hole pairs. The excitation spectrum is saturated by electron-hole collective bound-states, and we calculate the dispersion law of such modes. We also compute the DC conductivity per unit length at zero chemical potential and find g_s =e^2/h, where g_s=4 is the degeneracy factor.

7 pages, 2 figures. Definitive version, accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. B

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• Quantum Charge Transport and Conformational Dynamics of Macromolecules
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• Thermal Field Theory in a wire: Applications of Thermal Field Theory methods to the propagation of photons in a one-dimensional plasma
• Long-Distance Quantum Transport Dynamics in Macromolecules
• Thermal Field Theory in a layer: Applications of Thermal Field Theory methods to the propagation of photons in a two-dimensional electron sheet
• The Schwinger and Chiral Schwinger Models in a Non-perturbative Spectral Regularization