Analog of gravitational anomaly in topological chiral superconductors


Abstract in English

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.

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