Some spectral properties of the one-dimensional Dirac equation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spectral properties of a one-dimensional Dirac equation with various types of disorder, providing exact calculations of the density of states and localization length using replica methods and exploring underlying symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces exact analytical methods for spectral analysis of disordered Dirac systems and clarifies the algebraic and symmetry structures involved.

Findings

Exact density of states and localization length for Gaussian white noise disorder

Supersymmetric approach is less efficient than replica method for thermodynamic quantities

Existence of a non-trivial mapping between electric and magnetic disorder

Abstract

We study spectral properties of a one-dimensional Dirac equation with various disorder. We use replicas to calculate the exact density of state and typical localization length of a Dirac particle in several cases. We show that they can be calculated in any type of disorder obeying a Gaussian white noise distribution. In particular, we study the random electric potential model, as well as a mixed disorder case. We also clarify the supersymmetric alternative derivation, even though it proves less efficient than the replica treatment for such thermodynamic quantities. We show that the smallest dynamical algebra in the Hamiltonian formalism is $u(1,1)$, preferably to $u(n,n)$ in the replica derivation or $u(1,1|2)$ in the supersymmetric alternative. Finally, we discuss symmetries in the disorder fields and show that there exists a non trivial mapping between the electric potential disorder and the magnetic (or mass) disorder.