Spontaneous symmetry breaking of magnetostriction in metals with multi-valley band structure

Abstract

We show that a first-order phase transition can take place in a metal in a strong magnetic field if an electron Landau level approaches the Fermi energy of the metal. This transition is due to the electron-phonon interaction and is characterized by a jump in magnetostriction of the metal. If there are several equivalent groups of charge carriers in the metal, a spontaneous symmetry breaking of the magnetostriction can occur when the Landau level crosses the Fermi energy, and this breaking manifests itself as a series of the structural phase transitions that change a crystal symmetry of the metal. With these results, we discuss unusual findings recently discovered in bismuth.[ In the new version more explanations and examples added.]

10 pages, 3 fig

References in corpus (9)

• Signatures of Electron Fractionalization in Ultraquantum Bismuth
• Oscillating Nernst-Ettingshausen effect in Bismuth across the quantum limit
• Nematic Valley Ordering in Quantum Hall Systems
• Thermodynamic evidence for valley-dependent density of states in bulk bismuth
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Angle dependence of the orbital magnetoresistance in bismuth
• Boundary conductance in macroscopic bismuth crystals
• Detection of relativistic fermions in Weyl semimetal TaAs by magnetostriction measurements
• Magnetostriction of metals with small Fermi-surface pockets: Case of the topologically trivial semimetal LuAs