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Register a new userEmergent spacetime and gravitational Nieh-Yan anomaly in chiral $p+ip$ Weyl superfluids and superconductors
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Authors
Jaakko Nissinen
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Momentum transport is anomalous in chiral $p+ip$ superfluids and superconductors in the presence of textures and superflow. Using the gradient expansion of the semi-classical approximation, we show how gauge and Galilean symmetries induce an emergent curved spacetime with torsion and curvature for the quasirelativistic low-energy Majorana-Weyl quasiparticles. We explicitly show the emergence of the spin-connection and curvature, in addition to torsion, using the superfluid hydrodynamics. The background constitutes an emergent quasirelativistic Riemann-Cartan spacetime for the Weyl quasiparticles and they satisfy the conservation laws associated with local Lorentz symmetry, restricted to the plane of uniaxial anisotropy of the superfluid (or -conductor). Moreover, we show that the anomalous Galilean momentum conservation is a consequence of the gravitational Nieh-Yan (NY) chiral anomaly the Weyl fermions experience on the background geometry. Notably, the NY anomaly coefficient features a non-universal ultraviolet cut-off scale $Lambda$, with canonical dimensions of momentum. Comparison of the anomaly equation and the hydrodynamic equations suggests that the value of the cut-off parameter $Lambda$ is determined by the normal state Fermi liquid and non-relativistic uniaxial symmetry of the $p$-wave superfluid or superconductor.
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Nieh-Yan anomaly describes the non-conservation of chiral charges induced by the coupling between Dirac fermions and torsion fields. Since the torsion field is beyond general relativity, this effect remains hypothetical and its relevance to our universe is unclear in the context of high-energy physics. In this work, we propose that the phonons can induce a torsion field for the Kramers-Weyl fermions through electron-phonon interaction in a non-magnetic chiral crystal, thus leading to the occurrence of the Nieh-Yan anomaly in this condensed matter system. As a consequence, the Nieh-Yan term can strongly influence the phonon dynamics and lead to the helicity of acoustic phonons, namely, two transverse phonon modes mix with each other to form a circular polarization with a non-zero angular momentum at a finite phonon momentum and the phonon angular momentum reverses its sign for opposite momenta due to time reversal symmetry. The phonon helicity can be probed through measuring the total phonon angular momentum driven by a temperature gradient.
It is known that the contribution of torsion to the equation for the chiral Weyl fermions can be equivalently considered in terms of the axial $U(1)$ gauge field. In this scenario the gravitational field transforms to the $U(1)$ gauge field. Here we show that in chiral superconductors the opposite scenario takes place: the electromagnetic $U(1)$ field serves as the spin connection for the Bogoliubov fermionic quasiparticles. As a result the electromagnetic field gives rise to the gravitational anomaly, which contains the extra factor $1/3$ in the corresponding Adler-Bell-Jackiw equation as compared with the conventional chiral anomaly. We also consider the gravitational anomaly produced in neutral Weyl superfluids by the analog of the gravitational instanton, the process of creation and annihilation of the 3D topological objects -- hopfions. The gravitational instanton leads to creation of the chiral charge.
We propose a $mathbb{U}(1) times mathbb{Z}_2$ effective gauge theory for vortices in a $p_x+ip_y$ superfluid in two dimensions. The combined gauge transformation binds $mathbb{U}(1)$ and $mathbb{Z}_2$ defects so that the total transformation remains single-valued and manifestly preserves the the particle-hole symmetry of the action. The $mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field introduces a complete Chern-Simons term in addition to a partial one associated with the $mathbb{U}(1)$ gauge field. The theory reproduces the known physics of vortex dynamics such as a Magnus force proportional to the superfluid density. More importantly, it predicts a universal Abelian phase, $exp(ipi/8)$, upon the exchange of two vortices. This phase is modified by non-universal corrections due to the partial Chern-Simon term, which are nevertheless screened in a charged superfluid at distances that are larger than the penetration depth.
Magnetotransport theory of layered superconductors in the flux flow steady state is revisited. Longstanding controversies concerning observed Hall sign reversals are resolved. The conductivity separates into a Bardeen-Stephen vortex core contribution, and a Hall conductivity due to moving vortex charge. This charge, which is responsible for Hall anomaly, diverges logarithmically at weak magnetic field. Its values can be extracted from magetoresistivity data by extrapolation of vortex core Hall angle from the normal phase. Hall anomalies in YBCO, BSCCO, and NCCO data are consistent with theoretical estimates based on doping dependence of London penetration depths. In the appendices, we derive the Streda formula for the hydrodynamical Hall conductivity, and refute previously assumed relevance of Galilean symmetry to Hall anomalies.
We investigate the superconductivity (SC) driven by correlation effects in electron-doped bilayer BiH near a type-II van Hove singularity (vHS). By functional renormalization group, we find triplet $p$-wave pairing prevails in the interaction parameter space, except for spin density wave (SDW) closer to the vHS or when the interaction is too strong. Because of the large atomic spin-orbital coupling (SOC), the $p$-wave pairing occurs between equal-spin electrons, and is chiral and two-fold degenerate. The chiral state supports in-gap edge states, even though the low energy bands in the SC state are topologically trivial. The absence of mirror symmetry allows Rashba SOC that couples unequal spins, but we find its effect is of very high order, and can only drive the chiral $p$-wave into helical $p$-wave deep in the SC state. Interestingly, there is a six-fold degeneracy in the helical states, reflected by the relative phase angle $theta=npi/3$ (for integer $n$) between the spin components of the helical pairing function. The phase angle is shown to be stable in the vortex state.
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