Inspired by the discovery of quantum hall effect and topological insulator, topological properties of classical waves start to draw worldwide attention. Topological non-trivial bands characterized by non-zero Chern numbers are realized with external magnetic field induced time reversal symmetry breaking or dynamic modulation. Due to the absence of Faraday-like effect, the breaking of time reversal symmetry in an acoustic system is commonly realized with moving background fluids, and hence drastically increases the engineering complexity. Here we show that we can realize effective inversion symmetry breaking and effective gauge field in a reduced two-dimensional system by structurally engineering interlayer couplings, achieving an acoustic analog of the topological Haldane model. We then find and demonstrate unidirectional backscattering immune edge states. We show that the synthetic gauge field is closely related to the Weyl points in the three-dimensional band structure.
We propose a one-parameter family of noninteracting lattice models for Weyl semimetals with 4 Weyl nodes and tunable Fermi arcs. These 2-band model Hamiltonians are time-reversal symmetric with $\mathrm{T}^2 = + 1$, and tuning the parameter changes the connectivity of the Fermi arcs continuously without affecting the location and chiralities of the Weyl nodes in the bulk Brillouin zone. The bulk polarization and magnetization are shown to vary with this parameter, a dependence inaccessible to the low energy effective field theory.
Weyl semimetals are gapless three-dimensional topological materials where two bands touch at even number of points in the Brillouin zone. In this work we study a zincblende lattice model realizing a time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetal. The bulk dynamics is decribed by twelve helical Weyl nodes. Surface states form a peculiar quasi two-dimensional helical metal fundamentally different from the Dirac form typical for topological insulators. Allowed direction of velocity and spin of low-energy surface excitations are locked to the cubic symmetry axes. The studied system illustrates general pro…
We propose a mechanism to generate dissipationless current in time reversal symmetry breaking Weyl semimetals through the anomalous chiral magnetic effect (ACME). The ACME current is induced by chiral imbalance and flows along the direction of the Weyl nodes separation in momentum space. In contrast to the chiral magnetic effect, the ACME is not related to the chiral anomaly and does not require external magnetic field. In the presence of parallel electric and magnetic fields, the ACME gives rise to an antisymmetric linear magnetoresistance and a planar Hall conductivity, which we estimate to …
The hallmark of Weyl semimetals is the existence of open constant-energy contours on their surface -- the so-called Fermi arcs -- connecting Weyl points. Here, we show that for time-reversal symmetric realizations of Weyl semimetals these Fermi arcs in many cases coexist with closed Fermi pockets originating from surface Dirac cones pinned to time-reversal invariant momenta. The existence of Fermi pockets is required for certain Fermi-arc connectivities due to additional restrictions imposed by the six $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariants characterizing a generic time-reversal invariant Weyl …
Lorentz-violating type-II Weyl fermions, which were missed in Weyl's prediction of nowadays classified type-I Weyl fermions in quantum field theory, have recently been proposed in condensed matter systems. The semimetals hosting type-II Weyl fermions offer a rare platform for realizing many exotic physical phenomena that are different from type-I Weyl systems. Here we construct the acoustic version of type-II Weyl Hamiltonian by stacking one-dimensional dimerized chains of acoustic resonators. This acoustic type-II Weyl system exhibits distinct features in finite density of states and unique t…
We consider a natural generalization of the lattice model for a periodic array of two layers, A and B, of spinless electrons proposed by Fu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 106802 (2011)] as a prototype for a crystalline insulator. This model has time-reversal symmetry and broken inversion symmetry. We show that when the intralayer next-nearest-neighbor hoppings ta2, a = A, B vanish, this model supports a Weyl semimetal phase for a wide range of the remaining model parameters. When the effect of ta2 is considered, topological crystalline insulating phases take place within the Weyl semimetal one. By map…
Weyl semimetals host linear energy dispersions around Weyl nodes, as well as monopoles of Berry curvature in momentum space around these points. These features give rise to unique transport signatures in a Weyl semimetal, such as transverse transport without an applied magnetic field, known as anomalous transport. The type-II Weyl semimetal, recently experimentally demonstrated in several materials, is classified by a tilting of the Weyl nodes. This paper provides a theoretical study on thermoelectric transport in time-reversal breaking type-II Weyl semimetals. Our results examine the balance …
Weyl points emerge as topological monopoles of Berry flux in the three-dimensional (3D) momentum space and have been extensively studied in topological semimetals. As the underlying topological principles apply to any type of waves under periodic boundary conditions, Weyl points can also be realized in classical wave systems, which are easier to engineer compared to condensed matter materials. Here, we made an acoustic Weyl phononic crystal by breaking space inversion (P) symmetry using a combination of slanted acoustic waveguides. We conducted angle-resolved transmission measurements to chara…
The equality between the spectral, directional emittance and absorptance of an object under local thermal equilibrium is known as Kirchhoff's law of radiation. The breakdown of Kirchhoff's law of radiation is physically allowed by breaking time reversal symmetry and can open opportunities for nonreciprocal light emitters and absorbers. Large anomalous Hall conductivity and angle recently observed in topological Weyl semimetals, particularly type-I magnetic Weyl semimetals and type-II Weyl semimetals, are expected to create large nonreciprocal electromagnetic wave propagation. In this work, we …
We propose a realization of the Weyl semimetal phase that is invariant under time reversal and occurs due to broken inversion symmetry. We consider both a simple superlattice model and a more realistic tight-binding model describing an experimentally reasonable HgTe/CdTe multilayer structure. The two models have the same underlying symmetry, therefore their low-energy features are equivalent. We find a Weyl semimetal phase between the normal insulator and the topological insulator phases that exists for a finite range of the system parameters and exhibits a finite number of Weyl points with ro…
A linear Josephson junction mediated by the surface states of a time-reversal-invariant Weyl or Dirac semimetal localizes Majorana flat bands protected by the time-reversal symmetry. We show that as a result, the Josephson current exhibits a discontinuous jump at $π$ phase difference which can serve as an experimental signature of the Majorana bands. The magnitude of the jump scales proportionally to the junction width and the momentum space distance between the Weyl nodes. It also exhibits a characteristic dependence on the junction orientation. We demonstrate that the jump is robust against …
State Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber and Cable Manufacturing Technology, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics Intellisense, Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Qujing Normal University（曲靖师范学院）；Department of Physics, Hubei University（湖北大学）
Massless chiral fermions emergent in inversion symmetry-breaking Weyl semimetals (WSMs) reside in the vicinity of multiple low symmetry nodes and thus acquire strongly anisotropic dispersion. We investigate the longitudinal electromagnetic modes of two-component degenerate Weyl plasma relevant to the realistic band structure of type-I WSM. We show that the actual spectrum of three dimensional collective density excitations in TaAs family of WSM is gaples due to emergence of acoustic plasmons corresponding to out-of-phase oscillations of the plasma components. These modes exist around the [001]…
We theoretically study the modification of the energy spectrum of long-wavelength acoustic phonons due to the electron-phonon interaction in a three-dimensional topological Weyl semimetal under the influence of quantizing magnetic fields. We find that the dispersion and attenuation of phonons show striking oscillatory behaviors as varying the magnetic field at low temperatures. These oscillations are distinct when the Fermi energy is in different energy regimes. Moreover, the van Hove singularity of the Weyl spectrum can manifest as a transition between different oscillation patterns when incr…
Detection of Dirac, Majorana and Weyl fermions in real materials may significantly strengthen the bridge between high-energy and condensed-matter physics. While the presence of Dirac fermions is well established in graphene and topological insulators, Majorana particles have been reported recently and evidence for Weyl fermions in non-centrosymmetric crystals has been found only a couple of months ago, the 'magnetic' Weyl fermions are still elusive despite numerous theoretical predictions and intense experimental search. In order to detect a time-reversal symmetry breaking Weyl state we design…
We study the phase diagram for a lattice model of a time-reversal-broken three-dimensional Weyl semimetal (WSM) in an orbital magnetic field $B$ with a flux of $p/q$ per unit cell ($0\le p \le q-1$), with minimal crystalline symmetry. We find several interesting phases: (i) WSM phases with $2q$, $4q$, $6q$, and $8q$ Weyl nodes and corresponding surface Fermi arcs, (ii) a layered Chern insulating (LCI) phase, gapped in the bulk, but with gapless surface states, (iii) a phase in which some bulk bands are gapless with Weyl nodes, coexisting with others that are gapped but topologically nontrivial…
Weyl semimetal is a new topological state of matter, characterized by the presence of nondegenerate band-touching nodes, separated in momentum space, in its bandstructure. Here we discuss a particular realization of a Weyl semimetal: a superlattice heterostructure, made of alternating layers of topological insulator (TI) and normal insulator (NI) material, introduced by one of us before. The Weyl node splitting is achieved most easily in this system by breaking time-reversal (TR) symmetry, for example by magnetic doping. If, however, spatial inversion (I) symmetry remains, the Weyl nodes will …
Three-dimensional condensed matter incarnations of Weyl fermions generically have a tilted dispersion---in sharp contrast with their elusive high-energy relatives where a tilt is forbidden by Lorentz invariance, and with the low-energy excitations of two-dimensional graphene sheets where a tilt is forbidden by either crystalline or particle-hole symmetry. Very recently, a number of materials (MoTe$_2$, LaAlGe and WTe$_2$) have been identified as hosts of so-called type-II Weyl fermions whose dispersion is so strongly tilted that a Fermi surface is formed, whereby the Weyl node becomes a singul…
We perform a systematic study of the Zitterbewegung effect of fermions, which are described by a Gaussian wave with broken spatial-inversion symmetry in a three-dimensional low-energy Weyl semimetal. Our results show that the motion of fermions near the Weyl points is characterized by rectilinear motion and Zitterbewegung oscillation. The ZB oscillation is affected by the width of the Gaussian wave packet, the position of the Weyl node, and the chirality and anisotropy of the fermions. By introducing a one-dimensional cosine potential, the new generated massless fermions have lower Fermi Veloc…
Topological semimetal, hosting spin-1 Weyl point beyond Dirac and Weyl points, has attracted a great deal of attention. However, the spin-1 Weyl semimetal, which possesses exclusively the spin-1 Weyl points in a clean frequency window, without shadowed by any other nodal points, is yet to be discovered. Here, we report for the first time a spin-1 Weyl semimetal in a phononic crystal. Its spin-1 Weyl points, touched by two linear dispersions and an additional flat band, carry monopole charges (-2,0,2) or (2,0,-2) for the three bands from bottom to top, and result in double Fermi arcs existing b…
We consider a Weyl semimetal (WSM) with finite doping and tilt within a continuum model Hamiltonian with both broken time reversal and inversion symmetry. We calculate the absorptive part of the anomalous AC Hall conductivity as a function of photon energy ($Ω$) for both type I and type II Weyl semimetal. For a given Weyl node, changing the sign of its chirality or of its tilt changes the sign of its contribution to the absorptive Hall conductivity with no change in magnitude. For a noncentrosymmetric system we find that there are ranges of photon energies for which only the positive or only t…
We design and implement a three dimensional acoustic Weyl metamaterial hosting robust modes bound to a one-dimensional topological lattice defect. The modes are related to topological features of the bulk bands, and carry nonzero orbital angular momentum locked to the direction of propagation. They span a range of axial wavenumbers defined by the projections of two bulk Weyl points to a one-dimensional subspace, in a manner analogous to the formation of Fermi arc surface states. We use acoustic experiments to probe their dispersion relation, orbital angular momentum locked waveguiding, and abi…
Time reversal of acoustic waves can be achieved efficiently by the persistent control of excitations in a finite region of the system. The procedure, called Time Reversal Mirror, is stable against the inhomogeneities of the medium and it has numerous applications in medical physics, oceanography and communications. As a first step in the study of this robustness, we apply the Perfect Inverse Filter procedure that accounts for the memory effects of the system. In the numerical evaluation of such procedures we developed the Pair Partitioning method for a system of coupled oscillators. The algori…
The time-reversal mirror (TRM) prescribes the reverse playback of a signal to focalize an acoustic excitation as a Loschmidt echo. In the quantum domain, the perfect inverse filter (PIF) processes this signal to ensure an exact reversion provided that the excitation originated outside the cavity delimited by the transducers. We show that PIF takes a simple form when the initial excitation is created inside this cavity. This also applies to the acoustical case, where it corrects the TRM and improves the design of an acoustic bazooka. We solve an open chaotic cavity modeling a quantum bazooka an…
We propose a simple two-dimensional acoustic crystal to realize topologically protected edge states for acoustic waves. The acoustic crystal is composed of a triangular array of core-shell cylinders embedded in a water host. By utilizing the point group symmetry of two doubly degenerate eigenstates at the Γpoint, we can construct pseudo-time-reversal symmetry as well as pseudo-spin states in this classical system. We develop an effective Hamiltonian model for the associated dispersion bands around the Brillouin zone center, and find the inherent link between the band inversion and the topologi…
Weyl semimetal, a three-dimensional electronic system with relativistic linear energy dispersion around gapless points carrying nontrivial Berry charge, is predicted to exhibit a wealth of unique response and transport properties.A crucial question is whether those properties are robust against disorder and whether Anderson localization occurs.In this work, the effects of nonperturbative topological (vortex loop) excitations and Berry phase in disordered time-reversal invariant 3d Weyl semimetal are studied.It is shown that the chiral symmetry is restored in the nonlinear sigma model describin…
We study the stability of gap-closing (Weyl or Dirac) points in the three-dimensional Brillouin zone of semimetals using Clifford algebras and their representation theory. We show that a pair of Weyl points with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological charge are stable in a semimetal with time-reversal and reflection symmetries when the square of the product of the two symmetry transformations equals minus identity. We present toy models of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Weyl semimetals which have surface modes forming helical Fermi arcs. We also show that Dirac points with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological charge are stable in …
Higher-order topological phases have raised widespread interest in recent years with the occurrence of the topological boundary states of dimension two or more less than that of the system bulk. The higher-order topological states have been verified in gapped phases, in a wide variety of systems, such as photonic and acoustic systems, and recently also observed in gapless semimetal phase, such as Weyl and Dirac phases, in systems alike. The higher-order topology is signaled by the hinge states emerging in the common bandgaps of the bulk states and the surface states. In this Letter, we report …
The topological nature of the band structure of a Weyl semimetal leads to a number of unique transport and optical properties. For example, the description of the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in a Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal and inversion symmetry, for example, requires a modification of the Maxwell equations by the axion field $θ\left( \mathbf{r},t\right) =2\mathbf{b}\cdot \mathbf{r}-2b_{0}t,$ where $2% \mathbf{b}$ is the separation in wave vector space between two Weyl nodes of opposite chiralities and $2\hslash b_{0}$ is their separation in energy. In this paper, we s…
We propose a setup for the experimental realization of unexpected and anisotropic $0$-$π$ transitions of the Josephson current, in a junction whose link is made of irradiated Weyl semi-metal (WSM), due to the presence of chiral nodes. We show using a Green's function technique that the Josephson current through a time-reversal symmetric WSM has anisotropic periodic oscillations as a function of $k_0L$, where $k_0$ is the (relevant) separation of the chiral nodes and $L$ is the length of the sample. This is unexpected, for time-reversal symmetric systems, although it has been shown earlier for …
Kramers Weyl semimetals are Weyl semimetals that have Weyl points pinned at the time reversal invariant momenta. Recently it has been discovered that all chiral crystals host Weyl points at time reversal invariant momenta, so metals with chiral lattice symmetry all belong to the category of Kramers Weyl semimetals. In this work, we show that due to the chiral lattice symmetry, Kramers Weyl semimetals have the unique longitudinal magnetoelectric effect in which the charge current induced spin and orbital magnetization is parallel to the direction of the current. This feature allows Kramers Weyl…
We study a general phase transition between spinless topological nodal-line semimetal and Weyl semimetal phases. We classify topological nodal lines into two types based on their positions and shapes, and their phase transitions depends on their types. We show that the topological nodal-line semimetal becomes the Weyl semimetal by breaking time-reversal symmetry when the nodal lines enclose time-reversal invariant momenta (type-A nodal lines). We also discuss an effect of crystallographic symmetries determining the band structure of the topological nodal-line semimetals. Thanks to protection b…
We propose a different route to time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetals employing multilayer heterostructures comprising ordinary "trivial" insulators and nontrivial insulators with \textit{pairs} of protected Dirac cones on the surface. We consider both the case of weak topological insualtors, where surface Dirac cones are pinned to time-reversal invariant momenta, and of topological crystalline insulators with unpinned surface Dirac cones. For both realizations we explain phenomenologically how the proposed construction leads to the emergence of a Weyl semimetal phase. We further formulate e…
We study the effective symmetry profiles of superconducting pair correlations and the flow of charge supercurrent in ballistic Weyl semimetal systems with a tilted dispersion relation. Utilizing a microscopic method in the ballistic regime and starting from both opposite-pseudospin and equal-pseudospin phonon-mediated opposite-spin electron-electron couplings, we calculate the anomalous Green's function to study various superconducting pair correlations that Weyl semimetal systems may develop. The momentum-space profile reveals that by properly manipulating the parameters of Weyl semimetal sys…
Weyl semimetals are promising quantum materials that offer unique topological properties. Lately, it has been shown that laser-driven electron dynamics have characteristic signatures in two-dimensional and three-dimensional Dirac semimetals. The transition from Dirac to Weyl semimetal requires the breaking of either inversion or time-reversal symmetry. The present work shows that the laser-driven electron dynamics in a Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry has intriguing features in its high-harmonic spectrum. It is found that the parity and magnitude of the non-zero Berry curvatur…
The notion of higher-order topological insulators has endowed materials with topological states beyond the first order. Particularly, a three-dimensional (3D) higher-order topological insulator can host topologically protected 1D hinge states, referred to as the second-order topological insulator, or 0D corner states, referred to as the third-order topological insulator. Similarly, a 3D higher-order topological semimetal can be envisaged if it hosts states on the 1D hinges. Here we report the realization of a second-order topological Weyl semimetal in a 3D-printed acoustic crystal, which posse…
We study a Josephson junction involving an inversion-asymmetric Weyl semimetal in presence of time-reversal symmetric (TRS) or time-reversal symmetry broken tilt in the Weyl spectra. We reveal that both types of tilts in the Weyl nodes lead to a Josephson $0$-$π$ transition and a zero bias valley/chiral supercurrent. Strikingly, the TRS tilt gives rise to a pure valley Josephson current (VJC) and TRS broken tilt induces a pure chirality Josephson current (CJC) in this system. The VJC and CJC are the manifestation of valley symmetry broken and $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry broken by the respective ti…
The phonon magnetochiral effect consists of a nonreciprocity in the velocity or attenuation of acoustic waves when they propagate parallel and antiparallel to an external magnetic field. The first experimental observation of this effect has been reported recently in a chiral magnet and ascribed to the hybridization between acoustic phonons and chiral magnons. Here, we predict a potentially measurable phonon magnetochiral effect of electronic origin in chiral Weyl semimetals. Caused by the Berry curvature and the orbital magnetic moment, this effect is enhanced for longitudinal phonons by the c…
Charge-density waves (CDWs) in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have been shown to induce an exotic axionic insulating phase in which the sliding mode (phason) of the CDW acts as a dynamical axion field, giving rise to a large positive magneto-conductance [Wang et al., Phys. Rev. B 87, 161107(R) (2013); Roy et al., Phys. Rev. B 92, 125141 (2015); J. Gooth et al., Nature 575, 315 (2019)]. In this work, we predict that dynamical strain can induce a bulk orbital magnetization in time-reversal- (TR-) invariant WSMs that are gapped by a CDW. We term this effect the "dynamical piezomagnetic effect" (DPME). Un…
The Weyl fermions with a well defined chirality are known to demand that the dimension of space which they inhabit must be odd. It is shown here, however, that not all odd dimensional spaces are equally good hosts: in particular, an arbitrary number of chiral Weyl fermions can acquire a Majorana mass only in three (modulo eight) dimensions. The argument utilizes a) the precise analogy that exists between the Majorana mass term and the Cooper pairing of time-reversed Weyl fermions, and b) the conditions on the requisite time-reversal operator, which are implied by the Clifford algebra. The theo…
Topological insulators are new states of matter in which the topological phase originates from symmetry breaking. Recently, time-reversal invariant topological insulators were demonstrated for classical wave systems, such as acoustic systems, but limited by inter-pseudo-spin or inter-valley backscattering. This challenge can be effectively overcome via breaking the time-reversal symmetry. Here, we report the first experimental realization of acoustic topological insulators with nonzero Chern numbers, viz., acoustic Chern insulator (ACI), by introducing an angular-momentum-biased resonator arra…
We designed and fabricated a time-reversal invariant Weyl photonic crystal that possesses single Weyl nodes with topological charge of 1 and double Weyl nodes with a higher topological charge of 2. Using numerical simulations and microwave experiment, nontrivial band gaps with nonzero Chern numbers for a fixed kz was demonstrated. The robustness of the surface state between the Weyl photonic crystal and PEC against kz-conserving scattering was experimentally observed.
We study two Weyl semimetal generalizations in five dimensions (5d) which have Yang monopoles and linked Weyl surfaces in the Brillouin zone, respectively, and carry the second Chern number as a topological number. In particular, we show a Yang monopole naturally reduces to a Hopf link of two Weyl surfaces when the $\mathbf{TP}$ (time-reversal combined with space-inversion) symmetry is broken. We then examine the phase transition between insulators with different topological numbers in 5d. In analogy to the 3d case, 5d Weyl semimetals emerge as intermediate phases during the topological phase …
Spin-1 Weyl point is formed by three bands touching at a single point in the three dimensional (3D) momentum space, with two of which show cone-like dispersion while the third band is flat. Such a triply degenerate point carries higher topological charge $\pm2$2 and can be described by a three-band Hamiltonian. We first propose a tight-binding model of a 3D Lieb lattice with chiral interlayer coupling to form the Spin-1 Weyl point. Then we design a chiral phononic crystal that carries these spin-1 Weyl points and special straight-type acoustic Fermi arcs. We also computationally demonstrate th…
Time reversal mirrors have been successfully implemented for various kinds of waves propagating in complex media. In particular, acoustic waves in chaotic cavities exhibit a refocalization that is extremely robust against external perturbations or the partial use of the available information. We develop a semiclassical approach in order to quantitatively describe the refocusing signal resulting from an initially localized wave-packet. The time-dependent reconstructed signal grows linearly with the temporal window of injection, in agreement with the acoustic experiments, and reaches the same sp…
In the fermionic systems with topologically stable Fermi points the emergent two - component Weyl fermions appear. We propose the topological classification of these fermions based on the two invariants composed of the two - component Green function. We define these invariants using Wigner - Weyl formalism also in case of essentially non - homogeneous systems. In the case when values of these invariants are minimal ($\pm 1$) we deal with emergent relativistic symmetry. The emergent gravity appears, and our classification of Weyl fermions gives rise to the classification of vierbein. Transforma…
In this work, pumped currents of the adiabatically-driven double-barrier structure based on the pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl fermions are studied. As a result of the three-band dispersion and hence the unique properties of pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl quasiparticles, sharp current-direction reversal is found at certain parameter settings especially at the Dirac point of the band structure, where apexes of the two cones touches at the flat band. Such a behavior can be interpreted consistently by the Berry phase of the scattering matrix and the classical turnstile mechanism.
Despite of a rapidly expanding inventory of possible crystalline Weyl semimetals, all of them are constrained by the Nielsen-Ninomiya no-go theorem, namely, that left- and right-handed Weyl points appear in pairs. With time-reversal (T) symmetry, an even stronger version holds for the semimetals, i.e., all eight time-reversal-invariant points in the Brillouin zone (BZ) simultaneously host Weyl points or not. However, all the well-known conclusions from the no-go theorem are implicitly within the current framework of topological semimetals, and in this work, we shall go beyond it by exploring c…
