The experimental observation of an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect in graphene (a form of two-dimensional carbon obtained from three-dimensional graphite) by two independent groups (K.S. Novoselov et al., Nature 438, 197 (2005), and Yuanbo Zhang et al., Nature 438, 201 (2005)) has stirred a lot of interest in the scientific community as well as in the international media. The excitement behind this discovery has two main driven forces: basic science and technological implications.

Graphene is a condensed matter realization of the Dirac equation since the electronic dispersion close to the Brillouin zone edges are conical with a Fermi-Dirac velocity of order of one hundredth of the velocity of light. That is, graphene is a non-Fermi liquid system. In fact, graphene shares many properties with quasi-two-dimensional d-wave superconductors (such as superconducting cuprates) which can also be described in terms of Dirac-like excitations. There is an ongoing, intense experimental effort in graphene research. Cutting-edge techniques such as infrared absorption, angle-resolved photo-emission (ARPES), and Raman scattering, are being used to study this system. Some of these techniques that have been used so successfully in high temperature superconductivity, can be directly applied to these materials that also involve a layered structure. Because of its high electronic mobility, structural flexibility, and capability of being tuned from p-type to n-type doping by the application of a gate voltage, graphene is considered a potential breakthrough in terms of carbon-based nano-electronics.

The workshop will focus on the most recent experiments in graphene as well as recent theoretical proposals to describe it. The research program is intended to involve working meetings, with several presentations each week by invited experimentalists together with generous time for discussions and on-site theoretical research. Participation is by invitation only and will strongly favor those theorists who can come for the entire two-week period.