No Arabic abstract
Weyl semimetals (WSMs) are characterized by topologically stable pairs of nodal points in the band structure, that typically originate from splitting a degenerate Dirac point by breaking symmetries such as time reversal or inversion symmetry. Within the independent electron approximation, the transition between an insulating state and a WSM requires the local creation or annihilation of one or several pairs of Weyl nodes in reciprocal space. Here, we show that strong electron-electron interactions may qualitatively change this scenario. In particular, we reveal that the transition to a Weyl semi-metallic phase can become discontinuous, and, quite remarkably, pairs of Weyl nodes with a finite distance in momentum space suddenly appear or disappear in the spectral function. We associate this behavior to the buildup of strong many-body correlations in the topologically non-trivial regions, manifesting in dynamical fluctuations in the orbital channel. We also highlight the impact of electronic correlations on the Fermi arcs.
Recent discovery of both gapped and gapless topological phases in weakly correlated electron systems has introduced various relativistic particles and a number of exotic phenomena in condensed matter physics. The Weyl fermion is a prominent example of three dimensional (3D), gapless topological excitation, which has been experimentally identified in inversion symmetry breaking semimetals. However, their realization in spontaneously time reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking magnetically ordered states of correlated materials has so far remained hypothetical. Here, we report a set of experimental evidence for elusive magnetic Weyl fermions in Mn$_3$Sn, a non-collinear antiferromagnet that exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect even at room temperature. Detailed comparison between our angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveals significant bandwidth renormalization and damping effects due to the strong correlation among Mn 3$d$ electrons. Moreover, our transport measurements have unveiled strong evidence for the chiral anomaly of Weyl fermions, namely, the emergence of positive magnetoconductance only in the presence of parallel electric and magnetic fields. The magnetic Weyl fermions of Mn$_3$Sn have a significant technological potential, since a weak field ($sim$ 10 mT) is adequate for controlling the distribution of Weyl points and the large fictitious field ($sim$ a few 100 T) in the momentum space. Our discovery thus lays the foundation for a new field of science and technology involving the magnetic Weyl excitations of strongly correlated electron systems.
We recently introduced the dynamical cluster approximation(DCA), a new technique that includes short-ranged dynamical correlations in addition to the local dynamics of the dynamical mean field approximation while preserving causality. The technique is based on an iterative self-consistency scheme on a finite size periodic cluster. The dynamical mean field approximation (exact result) is obtained by taking the cluster to a single site (the thermodynamic limit). Here, we provide details of our method, explicitly show that it is causal, systematic, $Phi$-derivable, and that it becomes conserving as the cluster size increases. We demonstrate the DCA by applying it to a Quantum Monte Carlo and Exact Enumeration study of the two-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model. The resulting spectral functions preserve causality, and the spectra and the CDW transition temperature converge quickly and systematically to the thermodynamic limit as the cluster size increases.
Correlated topological magnets are emerging as a new class of quantum materials, exhibiting exotic interacting fermions and unconventional phase transitions. Despite considerable interest, direct observation of the magnetic manipulation of topological quasiparticles remains limited. Here we report a correlated topological phase transition in a kagome spin-orbit semimetal, examined by high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy. By modulating the magnetic order, we observe a clear exchange gap collapse in our spectra, associated with a large renormalization of a spin-orbit-gapped Weyl loop at the Fermi level. This unexpected response suggests the collapse of opposite-spin partner ferromagnetic Weyl loops into a paramagnetic Dirac loop. Taken together with $ab$ $initio$ calculation, our results further indicate that oppositely-charged Weyl points pair up and annihilate under collapse, and the Fermi arc surface states are removed. Our findings suggest a novel topological phase transition driven by magnetic interactions, guiding future exploration of renormalized topology under correlated order parameters.
We study the sudden expansion of strongly correlated fermions in a one-dimensional lattice, utilizing the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group method. Our focus is on the behavior of experimental observables such as the density, the momentum distribution function, and the density and spin structure factors. As our main result, we show that correlations in the transient regime can be accurately described by equilibrium reference systems. In addition, we find that the expansion from a Mott insulator produces distinctive peaks in the momentum distribution function at |k| ~ pi/2, accompanied by the onset of power-law correlations.
We formulate a low-energy theory for the magnetic interactions between electrons in the multi-band Hubbard model under non-equilibrium conditions determined by an external time-dependent electric field which simulates laser-induced spin dynamics. We derive expressions for dynamical exchange parameters in terms of non-equilibrium electronic Green functions and self-energies, which can be computed, e.g., with the methods of time-dependent dynamical mean-field theory. Moreover, we find that a correct description of the system requires, in addition to exchange, a new kind of magnetic interaction, that we name twist exchange, which formally resembles Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling, but is not due to spin-orbit, and is actually due to an effective three-spin interaction. Our theory allows the evaluation of the related time-dependent parameters as well.