Singularities, swallowtails and Dirac points. An analysis for families of Hamiltonians and applications to wire networks, especially the Gyroid

• Published in: Annals of physics Vol. 327; no. 11; pp. 2865 - 2884
• Main Authors: Kaufmann, Ralph M., Khlebnikov, Sergei, Wehefritz-Kaufmann, Birgit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 01-11-2012; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: BRILLOUIN ZONES; Classification; DIAGRAMS; Dirac points; Dispersion relation; DISPERSION RELATIONS; Double Gyroid; ELECTRONS; GRAPH THEORY; HAMILTONIANS; HOLES; Level crossings; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Nanostructure; Nanowires; Networks; Physical properties; Physics; QUANTUM WIRES; Singularities; SINGULARITY; Swallowtail; Torus cover; Wire; Torus cover; Swallowtail; Double Gyroid; Dirac points; Singularities; Dispersion relation
• ISSN: 0003-4916; 1096-035X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aop.2012.08.001

Motivated by the Double Gyroid nanowire network we develop methods to detect Dirac points and classify level crossings, aka. singularities in the spectrum of a family of Hamiltonians.
The approach we use is singularity theory. Using this language, we obtain a characterization of Dirac points and also show that the branching behavior of the level crossings is given by an unfolding of An type singularities. Which type of singularity occurs can be read off a characteristic region inside the miniversal unfolding of an Ak singularity.
We then apply these methods in the setting of families of graph Hamiltonians, such as those for wire networks. In the particular case of the Double Gyroid we analytically classify its singularities and show that it has Dirac points. This indicates that nanowire systems of this type should have very special physical properties.
► New method for analytically finding Dirac points. ► Novel relation of level crossings to singularity theory. ► More precise version of the von-Neumann–Wigner theorem for arbitrary smooth families of Hamiltonians of fixed size. ► Analytical proof of the existence of Dirac points for the Gyroid wire network.