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Many-body instability of Coulomb interacting bilayer graphene: Renormalization group approach

Oskar Vafek and Kun Yang
Phys. Rev. B 81, 041401(R) – Published 4 January 2010
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Abstract

Low-energy electronic structure of (unbiased and undoped) bilayer graphene consists of two Fermi points with quadratic dispersions if trigonal warping is ignored. We show that short-range (or screened Coulomb) interactions are marginally relevant and use renormalization group to study their effects on low-energy properties of the system. We find that the two quadratic Fermi points spontaneously split into four Dirac points. This results in a nematic state that spontaneously breaks the sixfold lattice rotation symmetry (combined with layer permutation) down to a twofold one, with a finite transition temperature. Critical properties of the transition and effects of trigonal warping are also discussed.

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  • Received 18 June 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.041401

©2010 American Physical Society

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Peeling back the layers or doubling the stakes?

Published 4 January 2010

Calculations of bilayer graphene reveal the possibility of new electronic phases.

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Authors & Affiliations

Oskar Vafek and Kun Yang

  • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA

See Also

Spontaneous inversion symmetry breaking in graphene bilayers

Fan Zhang, Hongki Min, Marco Polini, and A. H. MacDonald
Phys. Rev. B 81, 041402(R) (2010)

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Vol. 81, Iss. 4 — 15 January 2010

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