Quantum critical transport at a semimetal-to-insulator transition on the honeycomb lattice

Abstract

In this paper we study transport properties of electrons on the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. We consider a half-filled system in the vicinity of a symmetry-breaking transition from a semimetallic phase towards an insulating phase with either charge density or spin density wave order. The effect of either order is to break the sublattice inversion symmetry which induces a finite gap for the electronic single-particle excitations. Phenomenologically, such a scenario is described in the framework of a Gross-Neveu theory. We analyze two related formulations of the model by means of (i) a controlled renormalization group calculation and (ii) the large-N method, both of which in combination with a Boltzmann transport equation. We determine the quantum-critical conductivity and also discuss crossover behavior from quantum critical behavior into the insulating and/or the semimetallic phases. We find that at asymptotically low temperatures the quantum-critical conductivity is given by a temperature independent universal number. Over a large temperature window the temperature independent quantum critical conductivity is masked by a logarithmically temperature dependent contribution due to the marginally irrelevant long-range Coulomb interaction. We discuss possible origins of this peculiarity in the two complementary formulations of the model. Furthermore, we consider possible relations of our findings to recent experiments, with a special emphasis on the quantum-critical-to-insulator crossover. We find that our results are in remarkably good qualitative and quantitative agreement with a recent analysis of the data sets under the hypothesis of an underlying gap in the single-particle spectrum.