Thomas H. Seligman: SYMMETRY AND SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING IN MOLECULES: SELECTED ASPECTS

We discuss some little-known facts about symmetry breaking in graphene flakes and chains. In particular, we shall show DFT calculations for static and dynamic behaviour for the adsorption of Li to these surfaces[1,2]. On the other hand, the behaviour of graphene strips under symmetry breaking is illustrated by forming both normal rings and Möbius rings from polyacene strips.  The degeneracies of these strips are known, but for the rings, we find that the degeneracies for even and odd numbers of benzene rings are radially different, and this difference persists in the infinite limit [3]. Finally, some recent results on transport through triangulene are shown [4].

References: [1] Jalbout, A. F., Y. P. Ortiz, and T. H. Seligman. "Spontaneous symmetry breaking and strong deformations in metal adsorbed graphene sheets." Chemical Physics Letters 564 (2013): 69-72. [2] Jalbout, Abraham F. and Thomas H. Seligman. "Electron localization on molecular surfaces by metal adsorption." Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience 6.3 (2009): 541-544 [3] Sadurní, Emerson, et al. "Hidden duality and accidental degeneracy in cycloacene and Möbius cycloacene." Journal of Mathematical Physics 62.5 (2021). [4] T.H. Seligman, Y.P. Ortiz, K. Uriosteguí, T. Stegman and J. A. Lizarraga (work in progress) (2025)