  The electronic properties of graphene are influenced by both geometric
confinement and strain. We study the electronic structure of in-plane bent
graphene nanoribbons, systems where confinement and strain are combined. To
understand its electronic properties, we develop a tight-binding model that has
a small computational cost and is based on exponentially decaying hopping and
overlap parameters. Using this model, we show that the edge states in zigzag
graphene nanoribbons are sensitive to bending and develop an effective
dispersion that can be described by a one-dimensional atomic chain model.
Because the velocity of the electrons at the edge is proportional to the slope
of the dispersion, the edge states become gradually delocalized upon increasing
the strength of bending.
