Abstract

We explore the conditions for chiral symmetry breaking in reduced (or pseudo)quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature in connection with graphene and other 2D materials with an underlying Dirac behavior of the charge carriers. By solving the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation in a suitable truncation (either the nonlocal Nash gauge including vacuum polarization effects in the large fermion family number n(f) limit or the quenched rainbow approximation, in a Landau-like gauge) and neglecting wave function renormalization effects, we find the need of the effective coupling to exceed a critical value alpha(c) in order for chiral symmetry to be broken, in agreement with known results from other groups. In this supercritical regime, we add the effects of a thermal bath at temperature T and find the critical values of this parameter that lead to chiral symmetry restoration.