English

Valley Spin Sum Rule for Dirac Fermions: Topological Argument

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2011-04-29 v3

Abstract

We consider a two-dimensional bipartite lattice system. In such a system, the Bloch band spectrum can have some valley points, around which Dirac fermions appear as the low-energy excitations. Each valley point has a valley spin +1 or -1. In such a system, there are two topological numbers counting vortices and merons in the Brillouin zone, respectively. These numbers are equivalent, and this fact leads to a sum rule which states that the total sum of the valley spins is absent even in a system without time-reversal and parity symmetries. We can see some similarity between the valley spin and chirality in the Nielsen-Ninomiya no-go theorem in odd-spatial dimensions.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1010.0071,
  title  = {Valley Spin Sum Rule for Dirac Fermions: Topological Argument},
  author = {Jun Goryo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.0071},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure, some comments are added/revised, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:22:11.589Z