Interacting Weyl fermions: Phases, phase transitions and global phase diagram

Abstract

We study the effects of short-range interactions on a generalized three-dimensional Weyl semimetal, where the band touching points act as the (anti)monopoles of Abelian Berry curvature of strength $n$. We show that any local interaction has a \emph{negative} scaling dimension $-2/n$. Consequently all Weyl semimetals are stable against weak short-range interactions. For sufficiently strong interactions, we demonstrate that the Weyl semimetal either undergoes a first order transition into a band insulator or a continuous transition into a symmetry breaking phase. A translational symmetry breaking axion insulator and a rotational symmetry breaking semimetal are two prominent candidates for the broken symmetry phase. At the one-loop order, the correlation length exponent for continuous transitions is $\hat{I}½=n/2$, indicating their non-Gaussian nature for any $n>1$. We also discuss the scaling of the thermodynamic and transport quantities in general Weyl semimetals as well as inside the broken symmetry phases.

5.5 Pages, 2 Figures (Supplementary Materials: 8 Pages, 1 Figure; as Ancillary file): Published version in PRB