Low-energy electronic properties of a Weyl semimetal quantum dot

We investigate the low-energy electronic structure of a Weyl semimetal quantum dot(QD) with a simple model Hamiltonian with only two Weyl points. Distinguished from the semiconductor and topological insulator QDs, there exist both surface and bulk states near the Fermi level in Weyl semimetal QDs. The surface state, distributed near the side surface of the QD, contributes a circular persistent current, an orbital magnetic moment, and a chiral spin polarization with spin-current locking. There are always surface states even for a strong magnetic field, even though a given surface state gradually evolves into a Landau level with increasing magnetic field. It indicates that these unique properties can be tuned via the QD size. In addition, we show the correspondence to the electronic structures of a three-dimensional Weyl semimetal, such as Weyl point and Fermi arc. Because a QD has the largest surface-to-volume ratio, it provides a new platform to verify Weyl semimetal by separating and detecting the signals of surface states. Besides, the study of Weyl QDs is also necessary for potential applications in nanoelectronics.     

Chiral magnetic effect without chirality source in asymmetric Weyl semimetals

We describe a new type of the chiral magnetic effect (CME) that should occur in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) with an asymmetry in the dispersion relations of the left- and right-handed (LH and RH) chiral Weyl fermions. In such materials, time-dependent pumping of electrons from a non-chiral external source can generate a non-vanishing chiral chemical potential. This is due to the different capacities of the LH and RH chiral Weyl cones arising from the difference in the density of states in the LH and RH cones. The chiral chemical potential then generates, via the chiral anomaly, a current along the direction of an applied magnetic field even in the absence of an external electric field. The source of chirality imbalance in this new setup is thus due to the band structure of the system and the presence of (non-chiral) electron source, and not due to the parallel electric and magnetic fields. We illustrate the effect by an argument based on the effective field theory, and by the chiral kinetic theory calculation for a rotationally invariant WSM with different Fermi velocities in the left and right chiral Weyl cones; we also consider the case of a WSM with Weyl nodes at different energies. We argue that this effect is generically present in WSMs with different dispersion relations for LH and RH chiral Weyl cones, such as SrSi₂ recently predicted as a WSM with broken inversion and mirror symmetries, as long as the chiral relaxation time is much longer than the transport scattering time.     

Interplay between chiral magnetic and Kondo effects in Weyl metal phase

We investigate the Kondo effect in a Weyl metal state, which occurs from a spin-orbit coupled Dirac metal phase under magnetic fields. We start from an effective field theory in terms of low-energy fermions on a pair of chiral Fermi surfaces, which takes into account both the Berry curvature and chiral anomaly. Resorting to the U(1) slave-boson mean-field theory, we find that the effective Kondo temperature increases monotonically as a function of the external magnetic field due to enhancement of the density of states. The enhancement is originated from the chiral magnetic effect which is novel feature of Weyl metals. This leads to the prediction of the magnetic-field dependence in the logarithmic temperature dependence of the longitudinal magnetoconductivity.     

Conformally Flat Spacetimes and Weyl Frames

We discuss the concepts of Weyl and Riemann frames in the context of metric theories of gravity and state the fact that they are completely equivalent as far as geodesic motion is concerned. We apply this result to conformally flat spacetimes and show that a new picture arises when a Riemannian spacetime is taken by means of geometrical gauge transformations into a Minkowskian flat spacetime. We find out that in the Weyl frame gravity is described by a scalar field. We give some examples of how conformally flat spacetime configurations look when viewed from the standpoint of a Weyl frame. We show that in the non-relativistic and weak field regime the Weyl scalar field may be identified with the Newtonian gravitational potential. We suggest an equation for the scalar field by varying the Einstein-Hilbert action restricted to the class of conformally-flat spacetimes. We revisit Einstein and Fokker’s interpretation of Nordstr?m scalar gravity theory and draw an analogy between this approach and the Weyl gauge formalism. We briefly take a look at two-dimensional gravity as viewed in the Weyl frame and address the question of quantizing a conformally flat spacetime by going to the Weyl frame.     

Theory of magnetic oscillations in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals are a new class of Dirac material that possesses bulk energy nodes in three dimensions, in contrast to two dimensional graphene. In this paper, we study a Weyl semimetal subject to an applied magnetic field. We find distinct behavior that can be used to identify materials containing three dimensional Dirac fermions. We derive expressions for the density of states, electronic specific heat, and the magnetization. We focus our attention on the quantum oscillations in the magnetization. We find phase shifts in the quantum oscillations that distinguish the Weyl semimetal from conventional three dimensional Schrödinger fermions, as well as from two dimensional Dirac fermions. The density of states as a function of energy displays a sawtooth pattern which has its origin in the dispersion of the three dimensional Landau levels. At the same time, the spacing in energy of the sawtooth spike goes like the square root of the applied magnetic field which reflects the Dirac nature of the fermions. These features are reflected in the specific heat and magnetization. Finally, we apply a simple model for disorder and show that this tends to damp out the magnetic oscillations in the magnetization at small fields.     

Scattering Phase Asymptotics with Fractal Remainders

For a Riemannian manifold (M, g) which is isometric to the Euclidean space outside of a compact set, and whose trapped set has Liouville measure zero, we prove Weyl type asymptotics for the scattering phase with remainder depending on the classical escape rate and the maximal expansion rate. For Axiom A geodesic flows, this gives a polynomial improvement over the known remainders. We also show that the remainder can be bounded above by the number of resonances in some neighbourhoods of the real axis, and provide similar asymptotics for hyperbolic quotients using the Selberg zeta function.     

Detecting three-dimensional Weyl semimetal with a laser pulse

Three-dimensional Weyl semimetals have attracted many interests nowadays as they own novel topological properties. Here we propose to detect the Weyl semimetal by the scattered electrons (SEs) in the presence of a magnetic field. A laser pulse may cause the transition of electrons between different Landau levels (LLs) and therefore the SEs are induced. We make a detailed analysis of the SEs and find that the SEs and accompanying selection rules are different when the laser pulse acts perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field. We also investigate the influence of temperature on the SEs. In addition, a comparison with graphene was also made, where the SEs exhibit δ-peaks. The implications of our results in experiment are discussed.     

Spectral Asymptotics for Perturbed Spherical Schrödinger Operators and Applications to Quantum Scattering

We find the high energy asymptotics for the singular Weyl–Titchmarsh m-functions and the associated spectral measures of perturbed spherical Schrödinger operators (also known as Bessel operators).We apply this result to establish an improved local Borg–Marchenko theorem for Bessel operators as well as uniqueness theorems for the radial quantum scattering problem with nontrivial angular momentum.     

Asymptotic expansion for the density of states of the magnetic Schrödinger operator with a random potential

We study the asymptotics for the density of states of the magnetic Schrödinger operator with a random potential. By using the methods of effective Hamiltonian, complex dilation and complex translation, we obtain in the large magnetic field limit, the asymptotic expansion for the density of states measure considered as a distribution.     

Spectral Shift Function for Trapping Energies¶in the Semiclassical Limit

Semiclassical asymptotics of the spectral shift function (SSF) for Schr?dinger operator is studied at trapping energies. It is shown that the SSF converges to sum of a smooth function and a step function, which is essentially the counting function of resonances. In particular, the Weyl asymptotics is proved. Received: 14 December 1998 / Accepted: 1 June 1999     

Semiclassical Eigenvalue Estimates for the Pauli Operator with Strong Non-Homogeneous Magnetic Fields

We give the leading order semiclassical asymptotics for the sum of the negative eigenvalues of the Pauli operator (in dimension two and three) with a strong non-homogeneous magnetic field. As in [LSY-II] for homogeneous field, this result can be used to prove that the magnetic Thomas-Fermi theory gives the leading order ground state energy of large atoms. We develop a new localization scheme well suited to the anisotropic character of the strong magnetic field. We also use the basic Lieb-Thirring estimate obtained in our companion paper [ES-I]. Received: 11 September 1996 / Accepted: 17 February 1997     

Perfect-fluid space-times with type-D Weyl tensor

We consider solutions of the Einstein field equations for which the Weyl tensor is of Petrov typeD, and whose source is a perfect fluid with equation of statep=p(w), wherep andw are the energy density and pressure of the fluid, respectively. We also impose two additional restrictions which are satisfied by most of the known solutions, namely, that the fluid 4-velocityu lies in the 2-space spanned by the two repeated principal null directions of the Weyl tensor, and that the Weyl tensor has zero magnetic part relative tou. Our main result is that for this class of solutions, the equation of state satisfies eitherdp/dw=0 ordp/dw= 1, or else the solution admits three or more Killing vector fields.     

Asymptotic Regimes of Magnetic Bianchi Cosmologies

We consider the asymptotic dynamics of the Einstein-Maxwell field equations for the class of non-tilted Bianchi cosmologies with a barotropic perfect fluid and a pure homogeneous source-free magnetic field, with emphasis on models of Bianchi type VII₀, which have not been previously studied. Using the orthonormal frame formalism and Hubble-normalized variables, we show that, as is the case for the previously studied class A magnetic Bianchi models, the magnetic Bianchi VII₀ cosmologies also exhibit an oscillatory approach to the initial singularity. However, in contrast to the other magnetic Bianchi models, we rigorously establish that typical magnetic Bianchi VII₀ cosmologies exhibit the phenomena of asymptotic self-similarity breaking and Weyl curvature dominance in the late-time regime.     

The magnetic part of the Weyl tensor,and the expansion of discrete universes

We examine the effect that the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor has on the large-scale expansion of space. This is done within the context of a class of cosmological models that contain regularly arranged discrete masses, rather than a continuous perfect fluid. The natural set of geodesic curves that one should use to consider the cosmological expansion of these models requires the existence of a non-zero magnetic part of the Weyl tensor. We include this object in the evolution equations of these models by performing a Taylor series expansion about a hypersurface where it initially vanishes. At the same cosmological time, measured as a fraction of the age of the universe, we find that the influence of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor increases as the number of masses in the universe is increased. We also find that the influence of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor increases with time, relative to the leading-order electric part, so that its contribution to the scale of the universe can reach values of \(\sim \)1%, before the Taylor series approximation starts to break down.     

Quantum transport in topological semimetals under magnetic fields

Topological semimetals are three-dimensional topological states of matter, in which the conduction and valence bands touch at a finite number of points, i.e., the Weyl nodes. Topological semimetals host paired monopoles and antimonopoles of Berry curvature at the Weyl nodes and topologically protected Fermi arcs at certain surfaces. We review our recent works on quantum transport in topological semimetals, according to the strength of the magnetic field. At weak magnetic fields, there are competitions between the positive magnetoresistivity induced by the weak anti-localization effect and negative magnetoresistivity related to the nontrivial Berry curvature. We propose a fitting formula for the magnetoconductivity of the weak anti-localization. We expect that the weak localization may be induced by inter-valley effects and interaction effect, and occur in double-Weyl semimetals. For the negative magnetoresistance induced by the nontrivial Berry curvature in topological semimetals, we show the dependence of the negative magnetoresistance on the carrier density. At strong magnetic fields, specifically, in the quantum limit, the magnetoconductivity depends on the type and range of the scattering potential of disorder. The high-field positive magnetoconductivity may not be a compelling signature of the chiral anomaly. For long-range Gaussian scattering potential and half filling, the magnetoconductivity can be linear in the quantum limit. A minimal conductivity is found at the Weyl nodes although the density of states vanishes there.     

Aligned Electric and Magnetic Weyl Fields

The results on the non-existence of purely magnetic solutions are extended to the wider class of spacetimes which have homothetic electric and magnetic Weyl fields. This class is a particularization of the spacetimes admitting a direction for which the relative electric and magnetic Weyl fields are aligned. We give an invariant characterization of these metrics and study the properties of their Debever null vectors. The directions observing aligned electric and magnetic Weyl fields are obtained for every Petrov-Bel type.     

On the connection between the solutions to the Dirac and Weyl equations and the corresponding electromagnetic four-potentials

In this work we study in detail the connection between the solutions to the Dirac and Weyl equations and the associated electromagnetic four-potentials.First,it is proven that all solutions to the Weyl equation are degenerate,in the sense that they correspond to an infinite number of electromagnetic four-potentials.As far as the solutions to the Dirac equation are concerned,it is shown that they can be classified into two classes.The elements of the first class correspond to one and only one four-potential,and are called non-degenerate Dirac solutions.On the other hand,the elements of the second class correspond to an infinite number of four-potentials,and are called degenerate Dirac solutions.Further,it is proven that at least two of these fourpotentials are gauge-inequivalent,corresponding to different electromagnetic fields.In order to illustrate this particularly important result we have studied the degenerate solutions to the forcefree Dirac equation and shown that they correspond to massless particles.We have also provided explicit examples regarding solutions to the force-free Weyl equation and the Weyl equation for a constant magnetic field.In all cases we have calculated the infinite number of different electromagnetic fields corresponding to these solutions.Finally,we have discussed potential applications of our results in cosmology,materials science and nanoelectronics.     

Reflection amplitudes of boundary Toda theories and thermodynamic Bethe ansatz

We study the ultraviolet asymptotics in A_n affine Toda theories with integrable boundary actions. The reflection amplitudes of non-affine Toda theories in the presence of conformal boundary actions have been obtained from the quantum mechanical reflections of the wave functional in the Weyl chamber and used for the quantization conditions and ground-state energies. We compare these results with the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz derived from both the bulk and (conjectured) boundary scattering amplitudes. The two independent approaches match very well and provide the non-perturbative checks of the boundary scattering amplitudes for Neumann and (+) boundary conditions.