Gap structure of the Hofstadter system of interacting Dirac fermions in graphene.

Abstract

The effects of mutual Coulomb interactions between Dirac fermions in monolayer graphene on the Hofstadter energy spectrum are investigated. For two flux quanta per unit cell of the periodic potential, interactions open a gap in each Landau level with the smallest gap in the n=1 Landau level. For more flux quanta through the unit cell, where the noninteracting energy spectra have many gaps in each Landau level, interactions enhance the low-energy gaps and strongly suppress the high-energy gaps and almost close a high-energy gap for n=1. The signature of the interaction effects in the Hofstadter system can be probed through magnetization, which is governed by the mixing of the Landau levels and is enhanced by the Coulomb interaction.