Chiral symmetry breaking and the quantum Hall effect in monolayer graphene

Abstract

Monolayer graphene in a strong magnetic field exhibits quantum Hall states at filling fractions $\nu = 0$ and $\nu = \pm 1$ that are not explained within a picture of noninteracting electrons. We propose that these states arise from interaction-induced chiral symmetry-breaking orders. We argue that when the chemical potential is at the Dirac point, weak on-site repulsion supports an easy-plane antiferromagnet state, which simultaneously gives rise to ferromagnetism oriented parallel to the magnetic field direction, whereas for $|\nu|=1$ easy-axis antiferromagnet and charge-density-wave orders coexist. We perform self-consistent calculations of the magnetic field dependence of the activation gap for the $\nu = 0$ and $|\nu| = 1$ states and obtain excellent agreement with recent experimental results. Implications of our study for fractional Hall states in monolayer graphene are highlighted.