Short note on the density of states in 3D Weyl semimetals

The average density of states in a disordered three-dimensional Weyl system is discussed in the case of a continuous distribution of random scattering. Our result clearly indicate that the average density of states does not vanish, reflecting the absence of a critical point for a metal-insulator transition. This calculation supports recent suggestions of an avoided quantum critical point in the disordered three-dimensional Weyl semimetal. However, the effective density of states can be very small such that the saddle-approximation with a vanishing density of states might be valid for practical cases.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, additional supplemen

Lattice symmetries, spectral topology and opto-electronic properties of graphene-like materials

The topology of the band structure, which is determined by the lattice symmetries, has a strong influence on the transport properties. Here we consider an anisotropic honeycomb lattice and study the effect of a continuously deformed band structure on the optical conductivity and on diffusion due to quantum fluctuations. In contrast to the behavior at an isotropic node we find super- and subdiffusion for the anisotropic node. The spectral saddle points create van Hove singularities in the optical conductivity, which could be used to characterize the spectral properties experimentally.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Slightly extended version, e.g. Eq.(12) include

Interplay of topology and geometry in frustrated 2d Heisenberg magnets

We investigate two-dimensional frustrated Heisenberg magnets using non-perturbative renormalization group techniques. These magnets allow for point-like topological defects which are believed to unbind and drive either a crossover or a phase transition which separates a low temperature, spin-wave dominated regime from a high temperature regime where defects are abundant. Our approach can account for the crossover qualitatively and both the temperature dependence of the correlation length as well as a broad but well defined peak in the specific heat are reproduced. We find no signatures of a finite temperature transition and an accompanying diverging length scale. Our analysis is consistent with a rapid crossover driven by topological defects.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, final version to appear in Physical Review

Optical conductivity of graphene in the presence of random lattice deformations

We study the influence of lattice deformations on the optical conductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas. Lattice deformations are taken into account by introducing a non-abelian gauge field into the Eucledian action of two-dimensional Dirac electrons. This is in analogy to the introduction of the gravitation in the four-dimensional quantum field theory. We examine the effect of these deformations on the averaged optical conductivity. Within the perturbative theory up to second order we show that corrections of the conductivity due to the deformations cancel each other exactly. We argue that these corrections vanish to any order in perturbative expansion.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Valley symmetry breaking and gap tuning in graphene by spin doping

We study graphene with an adsorbed spin texture, where the localized spins create a periodic magnetic flux. The latter produces gaps in the graphene spectrum and breaks the valley symmetry. The resulting effective electronic model, which is similar to Haldane's periodic flux model, allows us to tune the gap of one valley independently from that of the other valley. This leads to the formation of two Hall plateaux and a quantum Hall transition. We discuss the density of states, optical longitudinal and Hall conductivities for nonzero frequencies and nonzero temperatures. A robust logarithmic singularity appears in the Hall conductivity when the frequency of the external field agrees with the width of the gap.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

There\u27s a New World Coming by George A. Sinner, Winter Commencement: December 20, 1970

Text of speech delivered by George Sinner at the UND Winter Commencement on December 20, 1970. Sinner was a North Dakota state senator from 1962 to 1966 and was later elected governor of North Dakota in 1984. He entitled his remarks: There\u27s a New World Coming

Functional renormalization group in the broken symmetry phase: momentum dependence and two-parameter scaling of the self-energy

We include spontaneous symmetry breaking into the functional renormalization group (RG) equations for the irreducible vertices of Ginzburg-Landau theories by augmenting these equations by a flow equation for the order parameter, which is determined from the requirement that at each RG step the vertex with one external leg vanishes identically. Using this strategy, we propose a simple truncation of the coupled RG flow equations for the vertices in the broken symmetry phase of the Ising universality class in D dimensions. Our truncation yields the full momentum dependence of the self-energy Sigma (k) and interpolates between lowest order perturbation theory at large momenta k and the critical scaling regime for small k. Close to the critical point, our method yields the self-energy in the scaling form Sigma (k) = k_c^2 sigma^{-} (k | xi, k / k_c), where xi is the order parameter correlation length, k_c is the Ginzburg scale, and sigma^{-} (x, y) is a dimensionless two-parameter scaling function for the broken symmetry phase which we explicitly calculate within our truncation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, puplished versio

Spectral function and quasi-particle damping of interacting bosons in two dimensions

We employ the functional renormalization group to study dynamical properties of the two-dimensional Bose gas. Our approach is free of infrared divergences, which plague the usual diagrammatic approaches, and is consistent with the exact Nepomnyashchy identity, which states that the anomalous self-energy vanishes at zero frequency and momentum. We recover the correct infrared behavior of the propagators and present explicit results for the spectral line-shape, from which we extract the quasi-particle dispersion and damping.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revisited version, to appear as Phys. Rev. Lette