https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-70468-2
Regular Article
Torsion effects on condensed matter: like a magnetic field but not so much
1 Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Caixa Postal 5008, 58051-900 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
2 Centro de Formação de Professores, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, 58900-000 Cajazeiras, PB, Brazil
3 Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Caixa Postal 3037, 37200-000 Lavras-MG, Brazil
4 Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, 52171-900, Recife, PE, Brazil
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e-mail: andersonfisica@hotmail.com
Received: 6 August 2016
Received in final form: 26 November 2016
Published online: 13 February 2017
In this work, we study the effects of torsion due to a uniform distribution of topological defects (screw dislocations) on free spin/carrier dynamics in elastic solids. When a particle moves in such a medium, the effect of the torsion associated to the defect distribution is analogous to that of an applied magnetic field but with subtle differences. Analogue Landau levels are present in this system but they cannot be confined to two dimensions. In the case of spinless carriers, zero modes, which do not appear in the magnetic Landau levels, show up for quantized values of the linear momentum projected on the defects axis. Particles with spin are subjected to a Zeeman-like coupling between spin and torsion, which is insensitive to charge. This suggests the possibility of spin resonance experiments without a magnetic field for charged carriers or quasiparticles without electrical charge, like triplet excitons, for instance.
Key words: Solid State and Materials
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2017
