Feb 9: Transport Phenomena and the Chiral Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals
S. Boyer
Monday, February 9, 4-5 PM, Daly Science 206
Transport Phenomena and the Chiral Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals
Pavan Hosur
Stanford University
Weyl semimetals (WSMs) are a new gapless topological phase of matter, in contrast to topological insulators, which are gapped. They are essentially 3D analogs of graphene; however, unlike graphene, they are a topologically stable phase and cannot be destroyed by point group symmetry breaking perturbations. The Weyl nodes are endowed with a handedness or "chirality", and exhibit a violation of chiral charge conservation in an E.B electromagnetic field known as the Chiral Anomaly. In this talk, I will discuss various transport properties of WSMs and describe a proposal to probe the chiral anomaly via optical transmission experiments. I will also touch upon surface transport in this phase. WSMs have exotic surface states known as Fermi arcs which are essentially disjoint segments of a 2D Fermi surface. A toy model to understand these states will be presented and predictions for Friedel oscillations due to a surface impurity in candidate WSMs will be made.
If you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation, please call Chris Weber at 408-554-7869 (voice) or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY-California Relay) at least 72 hours prior to the event.