Chiral sound waves in strained Weyl semimetals

We show that a strained wire of a Weyl semimetal supports a new type of gapless excitation, the chiral sound wave (CSW). It is a longitudinal charge density wave analog to the chiral magnetic wave predicted in the quark-gluon plasma but driven by an elastic axial pseudo-magnetic field. It involves the axial-axial-axial contribution to the chiral anomaly which couples the chiral charge density to the elastic axial gauge field. The chiral sound is unidirectional: it propagates along the elastic magnetic field and not in the opposite direction. The CSW may propagate for long distances as it does not couple directly to quickly dissipating electromagnetic plasmons, while its damping is controlled by the slow chirality flip rate. We propose an experimental setup to directly detect the chiral sound, which is excited by mechanical vibrations of the crystal lattice in the GHz frequency range. Our findings contribute to a new trend, the chiral acoustics, in strained Weyl semimetals.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor changes, published versio

Collective excitations and low temperature transport properties of bismuth

We examine the influence of collective excitations on the transport properties (resistivity, magneto- optical conductivity) for semimetals, focusing on the case of bismuth. We show, using an RPA approximation, that the properties of the system are drastically affected by the presence of an acoustic plasmon mode, consequence of the presence of two types of carriers (electrons and holes) in this system. We found a crossover temperature T* separating two different regimes of transport. At high temperatures T > T* we show that Baber scattering explains quantitatively the DC resistivity experiments, while at low temperatures T < T* interactions of the carriers with this collective mode lead to a T^5 behavior of the resistivity. We examine other consequences of the presence of this mode, and in particular predict a two plasmon edge feature in the magneto-optical conductivity. We compare our results with the experimental findings on bismuth. We discuss the limitations and extensions of our results beyond the RPA approximation, and examine the case of other semimetals such as graphite or 1T-TiSe_2

Collective excitations and universal broadening of cyclotron absorption in Dirac semimetals in a quantizing magnetic field

The spectrum of electromagnetic collective excitations in Dirac semimetals placed in a quantizing magnetic field is considered. We have found the Landau damping regions using the energy and momentum conservation law for allowed transitions between one-particle states of electron excitations. Analysis of dispersion equations for longitudinal and transverse waves near the window boundaries in the Landau damping regions reveals different types of collective excitations. We also indicate the features of universal broadening of cyclotron absorption for a magnetic field variation in systems with linear dispersion of the electron spectrum. The use of the obtained spectrum also allows us to predict a number of oscillation and resonance effects in the field of magneto-optical phenomena.Comment: 7 pages, 4 eps figure

Weyl excitations via helicon-phonon mixing in conducting materials

Quasiparticles with Weyl dispersion can display an abundance of novel topological, thermodynamic and transport phenomena, which is why novel Weyl materials and platforms for Weyl physics are being intensively looked for in electronic, magnetic, photonic and acoustic systems. We demonstrate that conducting materials in magnetic fields generically host Weyl excitations due to the hybridisation of phonons with helicons, collective neutral modes of electrons interacting with electromagnetic waves propagating in the material. Such Weyl excitations are, in general, created by the interactions of helicons with longitudinal acoustic phonons. An additional type of Weyl excitation in polar crystals comes from the interaction between helicons and longitudinal optical phonons. Such excitations can be detected in X-ray and Raman scattering experiments. The existence of the Weyl excitations involving optical phonons in the bulk of the materials also leads to the formation of topologically protected surface arc states that can be detected via surface plasmon resonance.Comment: 7+3 pages, and 2 figures. Published versio

Screening of Coulomb interactions in Holography

We introduce Coulomb interactions in the holographic description of strongly interacting systems, by performing a (current-current) double-trace deformation of the boundary theory. In the theory dual to a Reissner-Nordstr\"om background, this deformation leads to gapped plasmon modes in the density-density response, as expected from conventional RPA calculations. We further show that by introducing a $(d + 1)$-dimensional Coulomb interaction in a boundary theory in $d$ spacetime dimensions, we recover plasmon modes whose dispersion is proportional to $\sqrt{|\mathbf{k}|}$, as observed for example in graphene layers. Moreover, motivated by recent experimental results in layered cuprate high-temperature superconductors, we present a toy model for a layered system consisting of an infinite stack of (spatially) two-dimensional layers, that are coupled only by the long-range Coulomb interaction. This leads to low-energy `acoustic plasmons'. Finally, we compute the optical conductivity of the deformed theory in $d = 3 + 1$, where a logarithmic correction is present and we show how this can be related to the conductivity measured in Dirac and Weyl semimetals.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures; Published version (small changes according to referee's suggestions

Resonant plasmon-phonon coupling and its role in magneto-thermoelectricity in bismuth

Using diagrammatic methods we derive an effective interaction between a low energy collective movement of fermionic liquid (acoustic plasmon) and acoustic phonon. We show that the coupling between the plasmon and the lattice has a very non-trivial, resonant structure. When real and imaginary parts of the acoustic plasmon's velocity are of the same order as the phonon's velocity, the resonance qualitatively changes the nature of phonon-drag. In the following we study how magneto-thermoelectric properties are affected. Our result suggests that the novel mechanism of energy transfer between electron liquid and crystal lattice can be behind the huge Nernst effect in bismuth.Comment: accepted in EPJB, to appear with a highligh

Hydrodynamic model for electron-hole plasma in graphene

We propose a hydrodynamic model describing steady-state and dynamic electron and hole transport properties of graphene structures which accounts for the features of the electron and hole spectra. It is intended for electron-hole plasma in graphene characterized by high rate of intercarrier scattering compared to external scattering (on phonons and impurities), i.e., for intrinsic or optically pumped (bipolar plasma), and gated graphene (virtually monopolar plasma). We demonstrate that the effect of strong interaction of electrons and holes on their transport can be treated as a viscous friction between the electron and hole components. We apply the developed model for the calculations of the graphene dc conductivity, in particular, the effect of mutual drag of electrons and holes is described. The spectra and damping of collective excitations in graphene in the bipolar and monopolar limits are found. It is shown that at high gate voltages and, hence, at high electron and low hole densities (or vice-versa), the excitations are associated with the self-consistent electric field and the hydrodynamic pressure (plasma waves). In intrinsic and optically pumped graphene, the waves constitute quasineutral perturbations of the electron and hole densities (electron-hole sound waves) with the velocity being dependent only on the fundamental graphene constants.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Optical interface states protected by synthetic Weyl points

Weyl fermions have not been found in nature as elementary particles, but they emerge as nodal points in the band structure of electronic and classical wave crystals. Novel phenomena such as Fermi arcs and chiral anomaly have fueled the interest in these topological points which are frequently perceived as monopoles in momentum space. Here we report the experimental observation of generalized optical Weyl points inside the parameter space of a photonic crystal with a specially designed four-layer unit cell. The reflection at the surface of a truncated photonic crystal exhibits phase vortexes due to the synthetic Weyl points, which in turn guarantees the existence of interface states between photonic crystals and any reflecting substrates. The reflection phase vortexes have been confirmed for the first time in our experiments which serve as an experimental signature of the generalized Weyl points. The existence of these interface states is protected by the topological properties of the Weyl points and the trajectories of these states in the parameter space resembles those of Weyl semimetal "Fermi arcs surface states" in momentum space. Tracing the origin of interface states to the topological character of the parameter space paves the way for a rational design of strongly localized states with enhanced local field.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1610.0434