Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 43: Frontiers of Electronic Structure Theory: Focus on Topology and Transport IV
(Joint session of DS and O, organized by O)

DS 43.1: Topical Talk

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 10:30–11:00, H24

Transport phenomena in broken-symmetry metals: Geometry, topology, and beyond — •Ivo Souza — Universidad del País Vasco, San Sebastián, Spain

While topological quantization is usually associated with gapped systems – Chern insulators and topological insulators – it can also occur in broken-symmetry metals, where the Fermi surface (FS) consists of disjoint sheets: the Berry-curvature flux through each sheet is quantized, defining an integer Chern index. Using ferromagnetic bcc Fe as an example, I will describe how the FS Chern numbers are related to the chiral degeneracies (“Weyl points”) in the bandstructure. When placed in a static magnetic field, a Weyl (semi)metal will display the chiral magnetic effect (CME), where an electric field pulse E∥ B drives a transient current j∥ B. Weyl semimetals with broken inversion and mirror symmetries can also display a “gyrotropic magnetic effect" (GME), where an oscillating magnetic field drives a current and, conversely, an electric field induces a magnetization. The GME is the low-frequency limit of natural optical activity. It is governed by the intrinsic magnetic moment (orbital plus spin) of the Bloch electron on the FS, in much the same way that the anomalous Hall effect and CME are governed by the FS Berry curvature. Like the Berry curvature, the intrinsic magnetic moment should be regarded as a basic ingredient in the Fermi-liquid description of transport in broken symmetry metals.