Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in QED3_{3} at finite density and impurity potential

We study the effects of finite chemical potential and impurity scattering on dynamical fermion mass generation in (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics. In any realistic systems, these effects usually can not be neglected. The longitudinal component of gauge field develops a finite static length produced by chemical potential and impurity scattering, while the transverse component remains long-ranged because of the gauge invariance. Another important consequence of impurity scattering is that the fermions have a finite damping rate, which reduces their lifetime staying in a definite quantum state. By solving the Dyson-Schwinger equation for fermion mass function, it is found that these effects lead to strong suppression of the critical fermion flavor $N_c$ and the dynamical fermion mass in the symmetry broken phase.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Diffusive versus displacive contact plasticity of nanoscale asperities: Temperature- and velocity-dependent strongest size

We predict a strongest size for the contact strength when asperity radii of curvature decrease below ten nanometers. The reason for such strongest size is found to be correlated with the competition between the dislocation plasticity and surface diffusional plasticity. The essential role of temperature is calculated and illustrated in a comprehensive asperity size-strengthtemperature map taking into account the effect of contact velocity. Such a map should be essential for various phenomena related to nanoscale contacts such as nanowire cold welding, self-assembly of nanoparticles and adhesive nano-pillar arrays, as well as the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of macroscopic interfaces

Interaction and excitonic insulating transition in graphene

The strong long-range Coulomb interaction between massless Dirac fermions in graphene can drive a semimetal-insulator transition. We show that this transition is strongly suppressed when the Coulomb interaction is screened by such effects as disorder, thermal fluctuation, doping, and finite volume. It is completely suppressed once the screening factor $\mu$ is beyond a threshold $\mu_{c}$ even for infinitely strong coupling. However, such transition is still possible if there is an additional strong contact four-fermion interaction. The differences between screened and contact interactions are also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.