Alternative spacetimes in Solids

Lattices break the Lorentz symmetry of the vaccum. But some lattices such as graphene's honeycomb can have their own emergent Lorentz symmetry. In this sense the Minkowski spacetime emerges at lower energies and with smaller velocities than the speed of light. Are there solids capable of providing deformations of the Minkowski spacetime? It turns out that in solids with tilted Dirac cone, the lattice and associated electric forces arrange the scene in such a way that the effective structure of the spacetime acquires a very rich structure and "geometry" starts to play role mediating novel forms of forces. 

The forces leading to spacetime structures in the solids are of electric origin and hence much bigger than the gravitational forces. They are expected to lead to many novel phenomena which can be studied with various solid state spectroscopic tools. In contrast to the study of the structure of spacetime in cosmos that relies on "observation", in solid state spactimes, one can design on-demand experiments on the structure of the spacetime. In a different front, such solids can emulate gravitational phenomena, as they are described by the same language of geometry. This is the main focus of my team.