Cavity-Mediated Electron-Electron Interactions: Renormalizing Dirac States in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper develops a non-perturbative quantum electrodynamical framework to study how cavity photon fluctuations influence electron interactions in graphene, revealing significant renormalization effects on Dirac states and potential for discovering new quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a photon-free self-consistent Hartree-Fock approach to model electron-cavity photon coupling in materials, enabling non-perturbative analysis of cavity-induced effects.

Findings

Cavity photons cause nonlocal electron-electron interactions that renormalize Dirac bands.

Quantum linearly polarized photons can open a topologically trivial Dirac gap and form flat bands.

Two symmetric cavity modes preserve gapless Dirac cones but renormalize Fermi velocity.

Abstract

Embedding materials in optical cavities has emerged as a strategy for tuning material properties. Accurate simulations of electrons in materials interacting with quantum photon fluctuations of a cavity are crucial for understanding and predicting cavity-induced phenomena. In this article, we develop a non-perturbative quantum electrodynamical approach based on a photon-free self-consistent Hartree-Fock framework to model the coupling between electrons and cavity photons in crystalline materials. We apply this theoretical approach to investigate graphene coupled to the vacuum field fluctuations of cavity photon modes with different types of polarizations. The cavity photons introduce nonlocal electron-electron interactions, originating from the quantum nature of light, that lead to significant renormalization of the Dirac bands. In contrast to the case of graphene coupled to a classical circularly polarized light field, where a topological Dirac gap emerges, the nonlocal interactions induced by a quantum linearly polarized photon mode give rise to the formation of flat bands and the opening of a topologically trivial Dirac gap. When two symmetric cavity photon modes are introduced, Dirac cones remain gapless, but a Fermi velocity renormalization yet indicates the relevant role of nonlocal interactions. These effects disappear in the classical limit for coherent photon modes. This new self-consistent theoretical framework paves the way for the simulation of non-perturbative quantum effects in strongly coupled light-matter systems, and allows for a more comprehensive discovery of novel cavity-induced quantum phenomena.