Carbon allotropes are subject of intense investigations for their superb structural, electronic, and chemical properties, but not for topological band properties because of the lack of strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, we show that conjugated p-orbital interactions, common to most carbon allotropes, can in principle produce a new type of topological band structure, forming the so-called Weyl-like semimetal in the absence of SOC. Taking a structurally stable interpenetrated graphene network (IGN) as example, we show, by first-principles calculations and tight-binding modeling, that its Fermi surface is made of two symmetry-protected Weyl-like loops with linear dispersion along perpendicular directions. These loops are reduced to Weyl-like points upon breaking of the inversion symmetry. Because of the topological properties of these band-structure anomalies, remarkably, at a surface terminated by vacuum there emerges a flat band in the loop case and two Fermi arcs in the point case. These topological carbon materials may also find applications in the fields of catalysts.

6 3 l e t t e r sAs top predators, falcons possess unique morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations that allow them to be successful hunters: for example, the peregrine is renowned as the world's fastest animal. To examine the evolutionary basis of predatory adaptations, we sequenced the genomes of both the peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and saker falcon (Falco cherrug), and we present parallel, genome-wide evidence for evolutionary innovation and selection for a predatory lifestyle. The genomes, assembled using Illumina deep sequencing with greater than 100-fold coverage, are both approximately 1.2 Gb in length, with transcriptome-assisted prediction of approximately 16,200 genes for both species. Analysis of 8,424 orthologs in both falcons, chicken, zebra finch and turkey identified consistent evidence for genome-wide rapid evolution in these raptors. SNP-based inference showed contrasting recent demographic trajectories for the two falcons, and gene-based analysis highlighted falcon-specific evolutionary novelties for beak development and olfaction and specifically for homeostasisrelated genes in the arid environment-adapted saker.

A systematic study of thirty-two honeycomb monolayer II-VI semiconductors is carried out by first-principles methods. While none of the two-dimensional (2D) structures can be energetic stable, it appears that BeO, MgO, CaO, ZnO, CdO, CaS, SrS, SrSe BaTe and HgTe honeycomb monolayer have a good dynamic stability, the stability of the five oxides is consistent with the work published in [H. L. Zhuang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 212102 (2013)]. The rest of the compounds in the form of honeycomb are dynamically unstable, revealed by phonon calculations. In addition, according to the molecular dynamic (MD) simulation evolution from these unstable candidates, we also find two extra monolayers dynamically stable, which are tetragonal BaS [P4/nmm (129)] and orthorhombic HgS [P2 1 /m (11)]. The honeycomb monolayers exist in the form of either a planar perfect honeycomb or a low-buckled 2D layer, all of which possess a band gap and most of them are in the ultraviolet region.Interestingly, the dynamically stable SrSe has a gap near visible light, and displays exotic electronic properties with a flat top of the valence band, and hence has a strong spin polarization upon hole doping. The honeycomb HgTe has recently been reported to achieve a topological nontrivial phase under appropriate in-plane tensile strain and spin orbital coupling (SOC) [J. Li et al., arXiv:1412.2528v1 (2014]. Some II-VI partners with less than 5% lattice mismatch may be used to 2 design novel 2D heterojunction devices. If synthesized, potential applications of these 2D II-VI families could include optoelectronics, spintronics and strong correlated electronics.Corresponding

Graphene as a two-dimensional (2D) topological Dirac semimetal has attracted much attention for its outstanding properties and potential applications. However, three-dimensional (3D) topological semimetals for carbon materials are still rare. Searching for such materials with salient physics has become a new direction for carbon research. Here, using first-principles calculations and tight-binding modeling, we study three types of 3D graphene networks whose properties inherit those of Dirac electrons in graphene. In the band structures of these materials, two flat Weyl surfaces appear in the Brillouin zone (BZ), which straddle the Fermi level and are robust against external strain. When the networks are cut, the resulting lower-dimensional slabs and nanowires remain to be semimetallic with Weyl line-like and point-like Fermi surfaces, respectively. Between the Weyl lines, flat surface bands emerge with strong magnetism when each surface carbon atom is passivated by one hydrogen atom. The robustness of these structures can be traced back to a bulk topological invariant, ensured by the sublattice symmetry, and to the one-dimensional (1D) Weyl semimetal behavior of the zigzag carbon chain, which has been the common backbone to all these structures. The flat Weyl-surface semimetals may enable applications in correlated electronics, as well as in energy storage, molecular sieve, and catalysis because of their good stability, porous geometry, and large superficial area.2