Influence of dimensionality on superconductivity in carbon nanotubes

We investigate the electronic instabilities in carbon nanotubes (CNs), looking for the break-down of the one dimensional Luttinger liquid regime due to the strong screening of the long-range part of the Coulomb repulsion. We show that such a breakdown is realized both in ultra-small single wall CNs and multi wall CNs, while a purely electronic mechanism could explain the superconductivity (SC) observed recently in ultra-small (diameter $\sim 0.4 nm$) single wall CNs ($T_c\sim 15 ^{o}K$) and entirely end-bonded multi-walled ones ($T_c\sim 12 ^{o}K$). We show that both the doping and the screening of long-range part of the electron-electron repulsion, needed to allow the SC phase, are related to the intrinsically 3D nature of the environment where the CNs operate.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, PACS: 71.10.Pm,74.50.+r,71.20.Tx, to appear in J. Phys. Cond. Ma

Effective gravity and OSp(N,4) invariant matter

We re-examine the OSp(N,4) invariant interacting model of massless chiral and gauge superfields, whose superconformal invariance was instrumental, both in proving the all-order no-renormalization of the mass and chiral self-interaction lagrangians, and in determining the linear superfield renormalization needed. We show that the renormalization of the gravitational action modifies only the cosmological term, without affecting higher-order tensors. This could explain why the effect of the cosmological constant is shadowed by the effects of newtonian gravity.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, PACS: 04.65.+e, substantial revisions, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Crossover from marginal Fermi liquid to Luttinger liquid behavior in carbon nanotubes

We study graphene-based electron systems with long-range Coulomb interaction by performing an analytic continuation in the number of dimensions. We characterize in this way the crossover between the marginal Fermi liquid behavior of a graphite layer and the Luttinger liquid behavior at $D = 1$. The former persists for any dimension above $D = 1$. However, the proximity to the $D = 1$ fixed-point strongly influences the phenomenology of quasi-onedimensional systems, giving rise to an effective power-law behavior of observables like the density of states. This applies to nanotubes of large radius, for which we predict a lower bound of the corresponding exponent that turns out to be very close to the value measured in multi-walled nanotubes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure

On the Coulomb interaction in chiral-invariant one-dimensional electron systems

We consider a one-dimensional electron system, suitable for the description of the electronic correlations in a metallic carbon nanotube. Renormalization group methods are used to study the low-energy behavior of the unscreened Coulomb interaction between currents of well-defined chirality. In the limit of a very large number n of subbands we find a strong renormalization of the Fermi velocity, reminiscent of a similar phenomenon in the graphite sheet. For small n or sufficiently low energy, the Luttinger liquid behavior takes over, with a strong wavefunction renormalization leading to a vanishing quasiparticle weight. Our approach is appropriate to study the crossover from two-dimensional to one-dimensional behavior in carbon nanotubes of large radius.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX, PACS: 71.27.+a, 73.20.D, 05.30.F

N=8 supersymmetric mechanics on the sphere S^3

Starting from quaternionic N=8 supersymmetric mechanics we perform a reduction over a bosonic radial variable, ending up with a nonlinear off-shell supermultiplet with three bosonic end eight fermionic physical degrees of freedom. The geometry of the bosonic sector of the most general sigma-model type action is described by an arbitrary function obeying the three dimensional Laplace equation on the sphere S^3. Among the bosonic components of this new supermultiplet there is a constant which gives rise to potential terms. After dualization of this constant one may come back to the supermultiplet with four physical bosons. However, this new supermultiplet is highly nonlinear. The geometry of the corresponding sigma-model action is briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX file, PACS: 11.30.Pb, 03.65.-

Crossover from Luttinger liquid to Coulomb blockade regime in carbon nanotubes

We develop a theoretical approach to the low-energy properties of 1D electron systems aimed to encompass the mixed features of Luttinger liquid and Coulomb blockade behavior observed in the crossover between the two regimes. For this aim we extend the Luttinger liquid description by incorporating the effects of a discrete single-particle spectrum. The intermediate regime is characterized by a power-law behavior of the conductance, but with an exponent oscillating with the gate voltage, in agreement with recent experimental observations. Our construction also accounts naturally for the existence of a crossover in the zero-bias conductance, mediating between two temperature ranges where the power-law behavior is preserved but with different exponent.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The geometry of N=4 twisted string

We compare N=2 string and N=4 topological string within the framework of the sigma model approach. Being classically equivalent on a flat background, the theories are shown to lead to different geometries when put in a curved space. In contrast to the well studied Kaehler geometry characterising the former case, in the latter case a manifold has to admit a covariantly constant holomorphic two-form in order to support an N=4 twisted supersymmetry. This restricts the holonomy group to be a subgroup of SU(1,1) and leads to a Ricci--flat manifold. We speculate that, the N=4 topological formalism is an appropriate framework to smooth down ultraviolet divergences intrinsic to the N=2 theory.Comment: 20 pages, LaTe

Large N Effects and Renormalization of the Long-Range Coulomb Interaction in Carbon Nanotubes

We develop a dimensional regularization approach to deal with the low-energy effects of the long-range Coulomb interaction in 1D electron systems. The method allows us to avoid the infrared singularities arising from the long-range Coulomb interaction at D = 1, providing at the same time insight about the fixed-points of the theory. We show that the effect of increasing the number N of subbands at the Fermi level is opposite to that of approaching the bare Coulomb interaction in the limit D --> 1. Then, we devise a double scaling limit, in which the large N effects are able to tame the singularities due to the long-range interaction. Thus, regular expressions can be obtained for all observables right at D = 1, bearing also a dependence o the doping level of the system. Our results imply a variation with N in the value of the exponent for the tunneling density of states, which is in fair agreement with that observed in different transport experiments involving carbon nanotubes. As the doping level is increased in nanotubes of large radius and multi-walled nanotubes, we predict a significant reduction of order N^{-1/2} in the critical exponent of the tunneling density of states.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, PACS codes: 73.40, 11.10.

Making the hyper--K\"ahler structure of N=2 quantum string manifest

We show that the Lorentz covariant formulation of N=2 string in a curved space reveals an explicit hyper--K\"ahler structure. Apart from the metric, the superconformal currents couple to a background two--form. By superconformal symmetry the latter is constrained to be holomorphic and covariantly constant and allows one to construct three complex structures obeying a (pseudo)quaternion algebra.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, PACS: 04.60.Ds; 11.30.Pb, Keywords: N=2 string, hyper-K\"ahler geometry. Presentation improved, references added. The version to appear in PR

Suppression of electron-electron repulsion and superconductivity in Ultra Small Carbon Nanotubes

Recently, ultra-small-diameter Single Wall Nano Tubes with diameter of $\sim 0.4 nm$ have been produced and many unusual properties were observed, such as superconductivity, leading to a transition temperature $T_c\sim 15^oK$, much larger than that observed in the bundles of larger diameter tubes. By a comparison between two different approaches, we discuss the issue whether a superconducting behavior in these carbon nanotubes can arise by a purely electronic mechanism. The first approach is based on the Luttinger Model while the second one, which emphasizes the role of the lattice and short range interaction, is developed starting from the Hubbard Hamiltonian. By using the latter model we predict a transition temperature of the same order of magnitude as the measured one.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Phys.-Cond. Ma