Using Weyl symmetry to make Graphene a real lab for fundamental physics

Abstract

In the first attempt to introduce gauge theories in physics, Hermann Weyl, around the 1920s, proposed certain scale transformations to be a fundamental symmetry of nature. Despite the intense use of Weyl symmetry that has been made over the decades, in various theoretical settings, this idea never found its way to the laboratory. Recently, building-up from work by Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh and collaborators on the Weyl-gauge symmetry, applications of Weyl-symmetry to the electronic properties of graphene have been put forward, first, in a theoretical setting, and later, in an experimental proposal. Here I review those results, by enlarging and deepening the discussion of certain aspects, and by pointing to the steps necessary to make graphene a testing ground of fundamental ideas.

16 pages, 6 figures; invited talk at the "3rd O'Raifeartaigh Conference on Symmetry and Integrability" 19-21 July, 2012 - Munich, Germany

References in corpus (15)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• The electronic properties of graphene
• The Black Hole in Three Dimensional Space Time
• Geometry of the 2+1 Black Hole
• Colloquium: The transport properties of graphene: An introduction
• Midgap states and charge inhomogeneities in corrugated graphene
• Space dependent Fermi velocity in strained graphene
• Dimensionally Reduced Gravitational Chern-Simons Term and its Kink
• Weyl-Gauging and Conformal Invariance
• The Hawking-Unruh phenomenon on graphene
• Graphene and the Zermelo Optical Metric of the BTZ Black Hole
• Weyl-Gauge Symmetry of Graphene
• Entangled Quantum Fields near the Event Horizon and Entropy
• Mixing-induced Spontaneous Supersymmetry Breaking
• Alternative Symmetries in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Quantum field theory in curved graphene spacetimes, Lobachevsky geometry, Weyl symmetry, Hawking effect, and all that
• Scalar, spinor, and photon fields under relativistic cavity motion
• Curved Spacetimes and Curved Graphene: a status report of the Weyl-symmetry approach
• Generalized Uncertainty Principle in three-dimensional gravity and the BTZ black hole
• Negative-curvature spacetime solutions for graphene
• Logarithmic correction of the BTZ black hole and adaptive model of Graphene
• Torsion in quantum field theory through time-loops on Dirac materials
• Hairy BTZ black hole and its analogue model in graphene
• Hunting Quantum Gravity with Analogs: the case of graphene
• Graphene, Dirac equation and analogue gravity
• Graphene: QFT in curved spacetimes close to experiments
• Low energy electron-phonon effective action from symmetry analysis
• Graphene and Black Holes: novel materials to reach the unreachable
• The three "layers" of graphene monolayer and their analog generalized uncertainty principles
• Turning graphene into a lab for noncommutativity
• Quasinormal modes of BTZ black hole and Hawking-like radiation in graphene
• Time-Dependent Strain in Graphene
• Low-energy quantum scattering induced by graphene ripples
• Unruh effect detection through chirality in curved graphene
• Zero energy states of Dirac equation in $(2+1)$-dimensional curved spacetime
• Regular $(2+1)$-dimensional spatially homogeneous ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-corrected BTZ-like black hole in string theory
• Stability of graphene hyperbolic pseudospheres under harsh conditions