Axionic Instability of Periodic Weyl-Semimetal Superstructures

Abstract

Weyl-semimetal superstructures with a spiraling position of a pair of Weyl nodes of opposite chirality can host a chiral-symmetry preserving Fermi-arc metal state, where the chirality is carried by cylindrical Fermi surfaces, electron- and hole-like depending on the chirality. The Fermi surfaces nest at vanishing momentum separation (zero nesting vector) at the electron-hole-compensation energy because the nesting is topologically protected by vanishing spatial overlap of any pair of equal-momentum opposite-chirality states. In this work we show that the nesting and Coulomb interaction drive a spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in such a Fermi arc metal, which leads to a dynamical axion insulator state but without breaking translational symmetry (no charge-density-wave order) as in a conventional Weyl semimetal. As for material realization, we discuss magnetically doped Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$, for which the Weyl-node positions depend on the order of the magnetic dopands. In this case, the axionic condensation can itself stabilize a spiral order of the magnetization, and hence the spiraling node positions, even if the magnetic interaction is intrinsically ferromagnetic.

arXiv comment6+3 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (31)

• Prediction and observation of the first antiferromagnetic topological insulator
• Intrinsic magnetic topological insulators in van der Waals layered MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$-family materials
• Quantum Hall effects in a Weyl Semi-Metal: possible application in pyrochlore Iridates
• Dynamical Axion Field in Topological Magnetic Insulators
• Progress and prospects in magnetic topological materials
• Electromagnetic Response of Weyl Semimetals
• Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semi-metal
• Chiral anomaly, Charge Density Waves, and Axion Strings from Weyl Semimetals
• Evidence for an axionic charge density wave in the Weyl semimetal (TaSe4)2I
• A Proposal to Detect Dark Matter Using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets
• The chiral anomaly factory: Creating Weyl fermions with a magnetic field
• A Charge-Density-Wave Topological Semimetal
• RKKY interaction of magnetic impurities in Dirac and Weyl semimetals
• Excitonic Phases from Weyl Semi-Metals
• Pseudo-electromagnetic fields in topological semimetals
• Magnetic catalysis and axionic charge-density-wave in Weyl semimetals
• RKKY interaction on the surface of three-dimensional Dirac semimetals
• Axion Quasiparticles for Axion Dark Matter Detection
• Magnetic textures and dynamics in magnetic Weyl semimetals
• Designer curved-space geometry for relativistic fermions in Weyl metamaterials
• Response Properties of Axion Insulators and Weyl Semimetals Driven by Screw Dislocations and Dynamical Axion Strings
• RKKY interaction in three-dimensional electron gases with linear spin-orbit coupling
• Topological spiral magnetism in the Weyl semimetal SmAlSi
• Electronic Instability in a Zero-Gap Semiconductor: the Charge-Density Wave in (TaSe4)2I
• Long-range interaction induced phases in Weyl semimetals
• The dynamics of local magnetic moments induced by itinerant Weyl electrons
• Axion/Hidden-Photon Dark Matter Conversion into Condensed Matter Axion
• Fermi-arc metals
• Instability and topological robustness of Weyl semimetals against Coulomb interaction
• RKKY coupling in Weyl semimetal thin films
• Universal spin wave damping in magnetic Weyl semimetals