Topological responses from chiral anomaly in multi-Weyl semimetals

Ze-Min Huang, Jianhui Zhou, Shun-Qing Shen

Published 2017-05-12Version 1

Multi-Weyl semimetals are a kind of topological phase of matter with discrete Weyl nodes characterized by multiple monopole charges, in which the chiral anomaly, the anomalous nonconservation of an axial current, occurs in the presence of electric and magnetic fields. Electronic transport properties related to the chiral anomaly in the presence of both electromagnetic fields and axial electromagnetic fields in multi-Weyl semimetals are systematically studied. It has been found that the anomalous Hall conductivity has a modification linear in the axial vector potential from inhomogeneous strains. The axial electric field leads to an axial Hall current that is proportional to the distance of Weyl nodes in momentum space. This axial current may generate chirality accumulation of Weyl fermions through delicately engineering the axial electromagnetic fields even in the absence of external electromagnetic fields. Therefore, this work provides a nonmagnetic mechanism of generation of chirality accumulation in Weyl semimetals and might shed new light on the application of Weyl semimetals in the emerging field of valleytronics.