Chirality driven anomalous Hall effect in weak coupling regime

Anomalous Hall effect arising from non-trivial spin configuration (chirality) is studied based on the $s$-$d$ model. Considering a weak coupling case, the interaction is treated perturbatively. Scattering by normal impurities is included. Chirality is shown to drive locally Hall current and leads to overall Hall effect if there is a finite uniform chirality. This contribution is independent of the conventional spin-orbit contribution and shows distinct low temperature behavior. In mesoscopic spin glasses, chirality-induced anomalous Hall effect is expected below the spin-glass transition temperature. Measurement of Hall coefficient would be useful in experimentally confirming the chirality ordering

Controllable switching of vortex chirality in magnetic nanodisks by a field pulse

We propose a way of fast switching the chirality in a magnetic nanodisk by applying a field pulse. To break the symmetry with respect to clockwise or counterclockwise chirality a mask is added by which an inhomogeneous field influences the vortex state of a nanodisk. Using numerical spin--lattice simulations we demonstrate that chirality can be controllably switched by a field pulse, whose intensity is above some critical value. A mathematical definition for the chirality of an arbitrary shaped particle is proposed.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages, 3 figure

Probing and controlling spin chirality in Mott insulators by circularly polarized laser

Scalar spin chirality, a three-body spin correlation that breaks time-reversal symmetry, is revealed to couple directly to circularly polarized laser. This is shown by the Floquet formalism for the periodically driven repulsive Hubbard model with a strong-coupling expansion. A systematic derivation of the effective low-energy Hamiltonian for a spin degree of freedom reveals that the coupling constant for scalar spin chirality can become significant for a situation in which the driving frequency and the on-site interaction are comparable. This implies that the scalar chirality can be induced by circularly polarized lights, or that it can be used conversely for probing the chirality in Mott insulators as a circular dichroism.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Chirality blockade of Andreev reflection in a magnetic Weyl semimetal

A Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry has a minimum of two species of Weyl fermions, distinguished by their opposite chirality, in a pair of Weyl cones at opposite momenta $\pm K$ that are displaced in the direction of the magnetization. Andreev reflection at the interface between a Weyl semimetal in the normal state (N) and a superconductor (S) that pairs $\pm K$ must involve a switch of chirality, otherwise it is blocked. We show that this "chirality blockade" suppresses the superconducting proximity effect when the magnetization lies in the plane of the NS interface. A Zeeman field at the interface can provide the necessary chirality switch and activate Andreev reflection.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. V2: added investigation of the dependence of the chirality blockade on the direction of the magnetization and (Appendix C) calculations of the Fermi-arc mediated Josephson effec

Monte Carlo studies of the ordering of the one-dimensional Heisenberg spin glass with long-range power-law interactions

The nature of the ordering of the one-dimensional Heisenberg spin-glass model with a long-range power-law interaction is studied by extensive Monte Carlo simulations, with particular attention to the issue of the spin-chirality decoupling/coupling. Large system sizes up to $L=4096$ are studied. With varying the exponent $\sigma$ describing the power-law interaction, we observe three distinct types of ordering regimes. For smaller $\sigma$, the spin and the chirality order at a common finite temperature with a common correlation-length exponent, exhibiting the standard spin-chirality coupling behavior. For intermediate $\sigma$, the chirality orders at a temperature higher than the spin, exhibiting the spin-chirality decoupling behavior. For larger $\sigma$, both the spin and the chirality order at zero temperature. We construct a phase diagram in the $\sigma$ versus the temperature plane, and discuss implications of the results. Critical properties associated with both the chiral-glass and the spin-glass transitions are also determined.Comment: 28 pages, 26 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Dynamical Local Chirality and Chiral Symmetry Breaking

We present some of the reasoning and results substantiating the notion that spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking (SChSB) in QCD is encoded in local chiral properties of Dirac eigenmodes. Such association is possible when viewing chirality as a dynamical effect, measured with respect to the benchmark of statistically independent left-right components. Following this rationale leads to describing local chiral behavior by a taylor-made correlation, namely the recently introduced correlation coefficient of polarization C_A. In this language, correlated modes (C_A>0) show dynamical preference for local chirality while anti-correlated modes (C_A<0) favor anti-chirality. Our conclusion is that SChSB in QCD can be viewed as dominance of low-energy correlation (chirality) over anti-correlation (anti-chirality) of Dirac sea. The spectral range of local chirality, chiral polarization scale Lambda_ch, is a dynamically generated scale in the theory associated with SChSB. One implication of these findings is briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Talk given at "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum X", Munich, Germany, Oct. 8-12, 201

On the Microscopic Origin of Cholesteric Pitch

We present a microscopic analysis of the instability of the nematic phase to chirality when molecular chirality is introduced perturbatively. We show that previously neglected short-range biaxial correlations play a crucial role in determining the cholesteric pitch. We propose an order parameter which quantifies the chirality of a molecule.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 4 pages, one included eps figure. Published versio