Shadows of new physics on Dirac materials, analog GUPs and other amusements

TL;DR

This paper explores how Dirac materials like graphene can serve as experimental platforms to test generalized uncertainty principles related to quantum gravity, by analyzing higher-order effects and lattice discretization in different energy regimes.

Contribution

It demonstrates how to use Dirac materials as analog systems to realize and test generalized commutation relations and uncertainty principles relevant to quantum gravity.

Findings

Identified three energy regimes ('layers') with Dirac-like physics.

Derived three generalized Heisenberg algebras relevant to lattice effects.

Improved the mapping between high-energy and low-energy coordinates in Dirac systems.

Abstract

We discuss here how, when higher-order effects in the parameter $\frac{\ell}{\hbar} |\vec{p}|$, related to the lattice spacing $\ell$, are considered, pristine graphene, and other Dirac materials, can be used as tabletop systems where generalized commutation relations are naturally realized. Such generalized algebras of quantization, which lead to generalized versions of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, are under intense scrutiny these days, as they could manifest a fundamental length scale of spacetime. Despite the efforts and the many intriguing results, there are no experimental signatures of any generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). Therefore, our results here, which tell how to use tabletop physical systems to test certain GUPs in analog experiments, should be of interest to practitioners of quantum gravity. We identify three different energy regimes that we call ``layers'', where the physics is still of a Dirac type but within precisely described limits. The higher the energy, the more sensitive the Dirac system becomes to the effects of the lattice. Here such lattice plays the role of a discrete space where the Dirac quasi-particles live. With the goals just illustrated, we had to identify the mapping between the high-energy coordinates, $X^i$, and the low-energy ones, $x^i$, i.e., those measured in the lab. We then obtained three generalized Heisenberg algebras. For two of them we have the noticeable result that $X^i = x^i$, and for the third one we obtained an improvement with respect to an earlier work: the generalized coordinates expressed in terms of the standard phase space variables, $X^i(x,p)$, and higher order terms.