Chiral anomaly and anomalous finite-size conductivity in graphene

Abstract

Graphene is a monolayer of carbon atoms packed into a hexagon lattice to host two spin degenerate pairs of massless two-dimensional Dirac fermions with different chirality. It is known that the existence of non-zero electric polarization in reduced momentum space which is associated with a hidden chiral symmetry will lead to the zero-energy flat band of a zigzag nanoribbon and some anomalous transport properties. Here it is proposed that the Adler–Bell–Jackiw chiral anomaly or non-conservation of chiral charges of Dirac fermions at different valleys can be realized in a confined ribbon of finite width, even in the absence of a magnetic field. In the laterally diffusive regime, the finite-size correction to conductivity is always positive and is inversely proportional to the square of the lateral dimension W, which is different from the finite-size correction inversely proportional to W from the boundary modes. This anomalous finite-size conductivity reveals the signature of the chiral anomaly in graphene, and it is measurable experimentally. This finding provides an alternative platform to explore the purely quantum mechanical effect in graphene.