More analogy in Graphene

More work on the analogy between garphene and high energy physics. In this case, the focus the running coupling constants [ Nature Phys. 7, 701–704 (2011). ]:

The best times in Physics are those when physicists of different expertise meet around a problem of common interest. And this is now happening in the case of graphene. From the early days of the isolation of single sheets of graphene, the relativistic nature of its charge carriers was clear¹. These carriers, known as Dirac fermions, are described by equations similar to those that describe the quantum electrodynamic (QED) interactions of relativistic charged particles. A meticulous study performed by Elias and co-workers² of the electronic structure of graphene shows that at very low energies reaching a few meV of graphene's Dirac point, where its cone-like valence and conduction bands touch, the shape of the conduction and valence bands diverge from a simple linear relation. The result implies that the analogy between graphene and high-energy physics is deeper than first expected. In particular, it implies that the electromagnetic coupling of graphene does renormalize, as occurs in quantum field theory [http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v7/n9/full/nphys2066.html?WT.ec_id=NPHYS-201109].