Transversal magnetoresistance in Weyl semimetals

We explore theoretically the magnetoresistvity of three-dimensional Weyl and Dirac semimetals in transversal magnetic fields within two alternative models of disorder: (i) short-range impurities and (ii) charged (Coulomb) impurities. Impurity scattering is treated using the self-consistent Born approximation. We find that an unusual broadening of Landau levels leads to a variety of regimes of the resistivity scaling in the temperature-magnetic field plane. In particular, the magnetoresitance is non-monotonous for the white-noise disorder model. For $H\to 0$ the magnetoresistance for short-range impurities vanishes in a non-analytic way as $H^{1/3}$. In the limits of strongest magnetic fields $H$, the magnetoresistivity vanishes as $1/H$ for pointlike impurities, while it is linear and positive in the model with Coulomb impurities

Vortices and Impurities

We describe the BPS dynamics of vortices in the presence of impurities. We argue that a moduli space of solitons survives the addition of both electric and magnetic impurities. However, dynamics on the moduli space is altered. In the case of electric impurities, the metric remains unchanged but the dynamics is accompanied by a connection term, acting as an effective magnetic field over the moduli space. We give an expression for this connection and compute the vortex-impurity bound states in simple cases. In contrast, magnetic impurities distort the metric on the moduli space. We show that magnetic impurities can be viewed as vortices associated to a second, frozen, gauge group. We provide a D-brane description of the dynamics of vortices in product gauge groups and show how one can take the limit such that a subset of the vortices freeze.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. v2: version to appear in JHE

Potential fluctuations in graphene due to correlated charged impurities in substrate

We evaluate the autocorrelation function of the electrostatic potential in doped graphene due to nearby charged impurities. The screening of those impurities is described by a combination of the polarization function for graphene in random phase approximation with the electrostatic Green's function of the surrounding dielectrics. Using the hard-disk model for a two-dimensional distribution of impurities, we show that large correlation lengths between impurities can give rise to anti-correlation in the electrostatic potential, in agreement with recent experiments.Comment: To be published in to Applied Physics Letter

Quasiparticle scattering in two dimensional helical liquid

We study the quasiparticle interference (QPI) patterns caused by scattering off nonmagnetic, magnetic point impurities, and edge impurities, separately, in a two dimensional helical liquid, which describes the surface states of a topological insulator. The unique features associated with hexagonal warping effects are identified in the QPI patterns of charge density with nonmagnetic impurities and spin density with magnetic impurities. The symmetry properties of the QPI patterns can be used to determine the symmetry of microscopic models. The Friedel oscillation is calculated for edge impurities and the decay of the oscillation is not universal, strongly depending on Fermi energy. Some discrepancies between our theoretical results and current experimental observations are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, appendices added. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B (submitted, October 2009

Heterogeneous nucleation on complex networks with mobile impurities

We study the heterogeneous nucleation of Ising model on complex networks under a non-equilibrium situation where the impurities perform degree-biased motion controlled by a parameter \alpha. Through the forward flux sampling and detailed analysis on the nucleating clusters, we find that the nucleation rate shows a nonmonotonic dependence on \alpha for small number of impurities, in which a maximal nucleation rate occurs at \alpha=0 corresponding to the degree-uncorrelated random motion. Furthermore, we demonstrate the distinct features of the nucleating clusters along the pathway for different preference of impurities motion, which may be used to understand the resonance-like dependence of nucleation rate on the motion bias of impurities. Our theoretical analysis shows that the nonequilibrium diffusion of impurities can always induce a positive energy flux that can facilitate the barrier-crossing nucleation process. The nonmonotonic feature of the average value of the energy flux with \alpha may be the origin of our simulation results.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1202.423