• 文献标题:   The critical transition of Coulomb impurities in gapped graphene
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   ASOREY M, SANTAGATA A
  • 作者关键词:   boundary quantum field theory, integrable field theorie, renormalization group, topological states of matter
  • 出版物名称:   JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS
  • ISSN:   1029-8479
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Zaragoza
  • 被引频次:   0
  • DOI:   10.1007/JHEP08(2020)144
  • 出版年:   2020

▎ 摘  要

The effect of supercritical charge impurities in graphene is very similar to the supercritical atomic collapses in QED forZ >137, but with a much lower critical charge. In this sense graphene can be considered as a natural testing ground for the analysis of quantum field theory vacuum instabilities. We analyze the quantum transition from subcritical to supercritical charge regimes in gapped graphene in a common framework that preserves unitarity for any value of charge impurities. In the supercritical regime it is possible to introduce boundary conditions which control the singular behavior at the impurity. We show that for subcritical charges there are also non-trivial boundary conditions which are similar to those that appear in QED for nuclei in the intermediate regime 118< Z <137. We analyze the behavior of the energy levels associated to the different boundary conditions. In particular, we point out the existence of new bound states in the subcritical regime which include a negative energy bound state in the attractive Coulomb regime. A remarkable property is the continuity of the energy spectral flow under variation of the impurity charge even when jumping across the critical charge transition. We also remark that the energy levels of hydrogenoid bound states at critical values of charge impurities act as focal points of the spectral flow.