Small band gap at K point in graphene DFT calculation (no SOC)

Hello everyone,

I have reproduced the DFT tutorial calculation for graphene. At the K point, without including spin–orbit coupling, I obtain a small gap.

The energies of the π and π* bands at the K point are:

π = 0.7479841447 × 10⁻³ Hartree
π* = 0.7481050960 × 10⁻³ Hartree

This corresponds to a small but non-zero gap, whereas graphene is expected to be gapless at the K point in the absence of SOC.

How can this unphysical gap be explained?

Any insights would be appreciated. Thank you.