Symmetry and Dirac points in graphene spectrum

Existence and stability of Dirac points in the dispersion relation of operators periodic with respect to the hexagonal lattice is investigated for different sets of additional symmetries. The following symmetries are considered: rotation by 2 pi/3 and inversion, rotation by 2 pi/3 and horizontal reflection, inversion or reflection with weakly broken rotation symmetry, and the case where no Dirac points arise: rotation by 2 pi/3 and vertical reflection. All proofs are based on symmetry considerations. In particular, existence of degeneracies in the spectrum is deduced from the (co)representation of the relevant symmetry group. The conical shape of the dispersion relation is obtained from its invariance under rotation by 2 pi/3. Persistence of conical points when the rotation symmetry is weakly broken is proved using a geometric phase in one case and parity of the eigenfunctions in the other.