A Hamiltonian for Massless and Zero-Energy States

TL;DR

This paper introduces a non-hermitian Hamiltonian to describe massless and zero-energy states in condensed matter, analyzing tunneling behavior and predicting unique reflection phenomena distinct from Klein tunneling.

Contribution

It proposes a novel non-hermitian Hamiltonian model for massless and zero-energy states and analyzes their tunneling properties, contrasting with known electron behaviors.

Findings

Transmission coefficient aligns with non-chiral tunneling.

Massless electrons can reflect as holes.

Zero-energy states do not transition to holes.

Abstract

We present a non-hermitian Hamiltonian which can be employed to explain a condensed matter system with effectively massless and zero energy states. We analyze the 2D tunneling problem and derive the transmission and reflection coefficients for the massless and zero energy states. We find that the transmission coefficient of the massless and zero-energy particles in this case is consistent with non-chiral tunneling of quasiparticles which is in contrast to the Klein tunneling known for electrons described by the Dirac equation. Our analysis predicts that the massless electron can be reflected as a hole-like state whereas this transition does not occur for the zero-energy state. Experimental observations are needed to test whether the presented Hamiltonian can be realized in such a condensed matter system.