Eur. Phys. J. B (2015) 88: 288
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60572-8

Regular Article

Spin splitting at the Fermi level in carbon nanotubes in the absence of a magnetic field

¹ Departamento de Física, CCEN, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901 Recife, PE, Brazil
² Departamento de Física, CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Caixa Postal 5008, 58051-900 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
³ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, 52171-900 Recife, PE, Brazil
⁴ Departamento de Física and Departamento de Matemática, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901 Recife, PE, Brazil

^a e-mail: marciomc05@gmail.com

Received: 15 July 2015
Received in final form: 19 August 2015
Published online: 3 November 2015

Abstract

In this paper, motivated by the possibility of experimental realization, we study the low-energy electronic states of a rotating carbon nanotube within a continuum model. An effective Dirac equation in the rotating reference frame is derived and exact analytical solutions for the eigenfunctions and energy spectrum are obtained. A Zeeman-like splitting results from the coupling of rotation to total angular momentum and the previously known static results are obtained in the no rotation limit.