English

Spectrum of the Dirac Hamiltonian with the mass-hedgehog in arbitrary dimension

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2015-03-17 v3 Superconductivity High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

It is shown that the square of the Dirac Hamiltonian with the isotropic mass-hedgehog potential in d dimensions is the number operator of fictitious bosons and fermions over d quantum states. This result allows one to obtain the complete spectrum and degeneracies of the Dirac Hamiltonian with the hedgehog mass configuration in any dimension. The result pertains to low-energy states in the core of a general superconducting or insulating vortex in graphene in two dimensions, and in the superconducting vortex at the topological - trivial insulator interface in three dimensions, for example. The spectrum in d=2 is also understood in terms of the underlying accidental SU(2) symmetry and the supersymmetry of the Hamiltonian.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1010.0728,
  title  = {Spectrum of the Dirac Hamiltonian with the mass-hedgehog in arbitrary dimension},
  author = {Igor F. Herbut and Chi-Ken Lu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.0728},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

6 pages: typos corrected, new section on accidental supersymmetry, added references, many comments, and a figure. Published version