Alfredo Iorio

The Hawking-Unruh phenomenon on graphene

We find that, for a very specific shape of a monolayer graphene sample, a general relativistic-like description of a back-ground spacetime for grapheneʼs conductivity electrons is very natural. The corresponding electronic local density of states is of finite temperature. This is a Hawking–Unruh effect that we propose to detect through an experiment with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope.

Weyl-gauge symmetry of graphene

Abstract The conformal invariance of the low energy limit theory governing the electronic properties of graphene is explored. In particular, it is noted that the massless Dirac theory in point enjoys local Weyl symmetry, a very large symmetry. Exploiting this symmetry in the two spatial dimensions and in the associated three dimensional spacetime, we find the geometric constraints that correspond to specific shapes of the graphene sheet for which the electronic density of states is the same as that for planar graphene, provided the measurements are made in accordance to the inner reference frame of the electronic system. These results rely on the (surprising) general relativistic-like behavior of the graphene system arising from the combination of its well known special relativistic-like behavior with the less explored Weyl symmetry. Mathematical structures, such as the Virasoro algebra and the Liouville equation, naturally arise in this three-dimensional context and can be related to specific profiles of the graphene sheet. Speculations on possible applications of three-dimensional gravity are also proposed.

Using Weyl symmetry to make graphene a real lab for fundamental physics

I review recent work on the applications of the Weyl symmetry to the electronic properties of graphene, by enlarging and deepening the discussion of certain aspects, and by pointing the wayto the steps necessary to make graphene a testing ground of fundamental ideas.

Revisiting the gauge fields of strained graphene

We show that when graphene is only subject to strain, the spin connection gauge field that arises plays no measurable role, but when intrinsic curvature is present and strain is small, spin connection dictates most of the physics. We do so by showing that the Weyl field associated with strain is a pure gauge field and no constraint on the (

Mixing-induced spontaneous supersymmetry breaking

2+1

Three questions on Lorentz violation

)-dimensional spacetime appears. On the other hand, for constant intrinsic curvature that also gives a pure gauge Weyl field, we find a classical manifestation of a quantum Weyl anomaly, descending from a constrained spacetime. We are in the position to do this because we find the equations that the conformal factor in (

Quantum Dissipation and Quantum Groups

2+1

Lobachevsky crystallography made real through carbon pseudospheres.

) dimensions has to satisfy, which is a nontrivial generalization to (

On Schrödinger's quest for new physics for life

2+1

Scar-driven shape-changes of virus capsids

) dimensions of the classic Liouville equation of the differential geometry of surfaces. Finally, we comment on the peculiarities of the only gauge field that can describe strain, the well-known pseudogauge field