Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semimetal

Chao-Xing Liu, Peng Ye, and Xiao-Liang Qi
Phys. Rev. B 87, 235306 – Published 10 June 2013; Erratum Phys. Rev. B 92, 119904 (2015)

Abstract

Weyl fermions are two-component chiral fermions in (3+1) dimensions. When coupled to a gauge field, the Weyl fermion is known to have an axial anomaly, which means the current conservation of the left-handed and right-handed Weyl fermions cannot be preserved separately. Recently, Weyl fermions have been proposed in condensed-matter systems named “Weyl semimetals.” In this paper we propose a Weyl semimetal phase in magnetically doped topological insulators, and study the axial anomaly in this system. We propose that the magnetic fluctuation in this system plays the role of a “chiral gauge field” which minimally couples to the Weyl fermions with opposite charges for two chiralities. We study the anomaly equation of this system and discuss its physical consequences, including one-dimensional chiral modes in a ferromagnetic vortex line, and a novel plasmon-magnon coupling.

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  • Received 3 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.235306

©2013 American Physical Society

Erratum

Erratum: Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semimetal [Phys. Rev. B 87, 235306 (2013)]

Chao-Xing Liu, Peng Ye, and Xiao-Liang Qi
Phys. Rev. B 92, 119904 (2015)

Authors & Affiliations

Chao-Xing Liu1, Peng Ye2,3, and Xiao-Liang Qi4

  • 1Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA
  • 2Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 2Y5
  • 3Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China
  • 4Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4045, USA

Comments & Replies

Comment on “Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semimetal”

Kai Zhang, Erhu Zhang, and Shengli Zhang
Phys. Rev. B 96, 247301 (2017)

Reply to “Comment on ‘Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semimetal’ ”

Chao-Xing Liu, Peng Ye, and Xiao-Liang Qi
Phys. Rev. B 96, 247302 (2017)

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 23 — 15 June 2013

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