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We study magnetic monopoles in a Lorentz-and CPT-odd electrodynamical framework in (3+1) dimensions. This is the standard Maxwell model extended by means of a Chern-Simons-like term, b µF µν A ν (b µ constant), which respects gauge invariance but violates both Lorentz and CPT symmetries (as a consequence, duality is also lost). Our main interest concerns the analysis of the model in the presence of Dirac monopoles, so that the Bianchi identity no longer holds, which naively yields the non-conservation of electric charge. Since gauge symmetry is respected, the issue of charge conservation is more involved. Actually, the inconsistency may be circumvented, if we assume that the appearance of a monopole induces an extra electric current. The reduction of the model to (2+1) dimensions in the presence of both the magnetic sources and Lorentz-violating terms is presented. There, a quantization condition involving the scalar remnant of b µ , say, the mass parameter, is obtained. We also point out that the breaking of duality may be associated with an asymmetry between electric and magnetic sources in this background, so that the electromagnetic force experienced by a magnetic pole is supplemented by an extra term proportional to b µ , whenever compared to the one acting on an electric charge. *

We report the first experimental study upon the optical trapping and manipulation of topological insulator (TI) particles. By virtue of the unique TI properties, which have a conducting surface and an insulating bulk, the particles present a peculiar behaviour in the presence of a single laser beam optical tweezers: they oscillate in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the laser propagation. In other words, TI particles behave as optically induced oscillators, allowing dynamical measurements with unprecedented simplicity and purely optical control. Actually, optical rheology of soft matter interfaces and biological membranes, as well as dynamical force measurements in macromolecules and biopolymers, may be quoted as feasible possibilities for the near future.

We investigate the breakdown of Lorentz symmetry in QED by a CPT violating interaction term consisting of the coupling of an axial fermion current with a constant vector field $b$, in the framework of algebraic renormalization -- a regularization-independent method. We show, to all orders in perturbation theory, that a CPT-odd and Lorentz violating Chern-Simons-like term, definitively, is not radiatively induced by the axial coupling of the fermions with the constant vector $b$

We study the scattering of graphene quasiparticles by topological defects, represented by holes, pentagons and heptagons. For the case of holes, we obtain the phase shift and found that at low concentration they appear to be irrelevant for the electron transport, giving a negligible contribution to the resistivity. Whenever pentagons are introduced into the lattice and the fermionic current is constrained to move near one of them we realize that such a current is scattered with an angle that depends only on the number of pentagons and on the side the current taken. Such a deviation may be determined by means of a Young-type experiment, through the interference pattern between the two current branches scattered by a pentagon. In the case of a heptagon such a current is also scattered but it diverges from the defect, preventing a interference between two beams of current for the same heptagon