We report on hybrid Monte Carlo simulations of the tight-binding model with long-range Coulomb interactions for the electronic properties of graphene. We investigate the spontaneous breaking of sublattice symmetry corresponding to a transition from the semimetal to an antiferromagnetic insulating phase. Our short-range interactions thereby include the partial screening due to electrons in higher energy states from ab initio calculations based on the constrained random phase approximation [T. O. Wehling et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 236805 (2011)]. In contrast to a similar previous Monte Carlo study [M. V. Ulybyshev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 056801 (2013)], we also include a phenomenological model that describes the transition to the unscreened bare Coulomb interactions of graphene at half-filling in the long-wavelength limit. Our results show, however, that the critical coupling for the antiferromagnetic Mott transition is largely insensitive to the strength of these long-range Coulomb tails. They hence confirm the prediction that suspended graphene remains in the semimetal phase when a realistic static screening of the Coulomb interactions is included.

• Received 17 March 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.195429