We study electron transport properties of a monoatomic graphite layer
(graphene) with different types of disorder. We show that the transport
properties of the system depend strongly on the character of disorder. Away
from half filling, the concentration dependence of conductivity is linear in
the case of strong scatterers, in line with recent experimental observations,
and logarithmic for weak scatterers. At half filling the conductivity is of the
order of e^2/h if the randomness preserves one of the chiral symmetries of the
clean Hamiltonian; otherwise, the conductivity is strongly affected by
localization effects.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure
We consider the conductivity sigma of graphene with negligible intervalley scattering at half filling. We derive the effective field theory, which, for the case of a potential disorder, is a symplectic-class sigma model including a topological term with theta=pi. As a consequence, the system is at a quantum critical point with a universal value of the conductivity of the order of e(2)/h. When the effective time-reversal symmetry is broken, the symmetry class becomes unitary, and sigma acquires the value characteristic for the quantum Hall transition.
We study interaction effects in topological insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling. We find that the interplay of nontrivial topology and Coulomb repulsion induces a novel critical state on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator. Remarkably, this interaction-induced criticality, characterized by a universal value of conductivity, emerges without any adjustable parameters. Further, we predict a direct quantum-spin-Hall transition in two dimensions that occurs via a similar critical state.
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