Inelastic quantum transport and peierls-like mechanism in carbon nanotubes

We report on a theoretical study of inelastic quantum transport in (3m,0) carbon nanotubes. By using a many-body description of the electron-phonon interaction in Fock space, a novel mechanism involving optical phonon emission (absorption) is shown to induce an unprecedented energy-gap opening at half the phonon energy, h omega(0)/2, above (below) the charge neutrality point. This mechanism, which is prevented by Pauli blocking at low bias voltages, is activated at bias voltages on the order of h omega(0).