Note on lattice spin in graphene and "spin from isospin" phenomenon

Abstract: It is well-known that the dynamics of low energy electron in graphene honeycomb lattice near the K/K' points can be described, in tight-binding approximation, by 2+1 massless Dirac equation. Graphene's spin equivalent, "pseudospin", arises from the degeneracy introduced by the honeycomb lattice's two inequivalent atomic sites per unit cell. Mecklenburg and Regan (Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (2011), 116803) have shown that, contrary to the common view, the pseudospin has all attributes of real angular momentum. In some circumstances, the internal symmetries can produce an important contribution to angular momentum. This phenomenon has been known for many years in particle physics and called "spin from isospin". We show that similar mechanism works in the case of lattice pseudospin.