No Arabic abstract
Motivated by recent experiments on the phonon contribution to the thermal Hall effect in the cuprates, we present an analysis of chiral phonon transport. We assume the chiral behavior arises from a non-zero phonon Hall vicosity, which is likely induced by the coupling to electrons. Phonons with a non-zero phonon Hall viscosity have an intrinsic thermal Hall conductivity, but Chen et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 167601 (2020)) have argued that a significantly larger thermal Hall conductivity can arise from an extrinsic contribution which is inversely proportional to the density of impurities. We solve the Boltzmann equation for phonon transport and compute the temperature ($T$) dependence of the thermal Hall conductivity originating from skew scattering off point-like impurities. We find that the dominant source for thermal Hall transport is an interference between impurity skew scattering channels with opposite parity. The thermal Hall conductivity $sim T^{d+2}$ at low $T$ in $d$ dimensions, and has a window of $T$-independent behavior for $T > T_{rm imp}$, where $T_{rm imp}$ is determined by the ratio of scattering potentials with opposite parity. We also consider the role of non-specular scattering off the sample boundary, and find that it leads to negligible corrections to thermal Hall transport at low $T$.
Motivated by experimental observations, Samajdar et al. [Nature Physics 15, 1290 (2019)] have proposed that the insulating Neel state in the parent compounds of the cuprates is proximate to a quantum phase transition to a state in which Neel order coexists with semion topological order. We study the manner in which proximity to this transition can make the phonons chiral, by inducing a significant phonon Hall viscosity. We describe the spinon-phonon coupling in a lattice spinon model coupled to a strain field, and also using a general continuum theory constrained only by symmetry. We find a nonanalytic Hall viscosity across the transition, with a divergent second derivative at zero temperature.
Hall viscosity, also known as the Lorentz shear modulus, has been proposed as a topological property of a quantum Hall fluid. Using a recent formulation of the composite fermion theory on the torus, we evaluate the Hall viscosities for a large number of fractional quantum Hall states at filling factors of the form $ u=n/(2pnpm 1)$, where $n$ and $p$ are integers, from the explicit wave functions for these states. The calculated Hall viscosities $eta^A$ agree with the expression $eta^A=(hbar/4) {cal S}rho$, where $rho$ is the density and ${cal S}=2ppm n$ is the shift in the spherical geometry. We discuss the role of modular invariance of the wave functions, of the center-of-mass momentum, and also of the lowest-Landau-level projection. Finally, we show that the Hall viscosity for $ u={nover 2pn+1}$ may be derived analytically from the microscopic wave functions, provided that the overall normalization factor satisfies a certain behavior in the thermodynamic limit. This derivation should be applicable to a class of states in the parton construction, which are products of integer quantum Hall states with magnetic fields pointing in the same direction.
The Phonon Hall Viscosity is the leading term evincing time-reversal symmetry breaking in the low energy description of lattice phonons. It may generate phonon Berry curvature, and can be observed experimentally through the acoustic Faraday effect and thermal Hall transport. We present a systematic procedure to obtain the phonon Hall viscosity induced by phonon-magnon interactions in magnetic insulators under an external magnetic field. We obtain a general symmetry criterion that leads to non-zero Faraday rotation and Hall conductivity, and clarify the interplay between lattice symmetry, spin-orbit-coupling, external magnetic field and magnetic ordering. The symmetry analysis is verified through a microscopic calculation. By constructing the general symmetry-allowed effective action that describes the spin dynamics and spin-lattice coupling, and then integrating out the spin fluctuations, the leading order time-reversal breaking term in the phonon effective action, i.e. the phonon Hall viscosity, can be obtained. The analysis of the square lattice antiferromagnet for a cuprate Mott insulator, Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$, is presented explicitly, and the procedure described here can be readily generalized to other magnetic insulators.
We derive a generalized set of Ward identities that captures the effects of topological charge on Hall transport. The Ward identities follow from the 2+1 dimensional momentum algebra, which includes a central extension proportional to the topological charge density. In the presence of topological objects like Skyrmions, we observe that the central term leads to a direct relation between the thermal Hall conductivity and the topological charge density. We extend this relation to incorporate the effects of a magnetic field and an electric current. The topological charge density produces a distinct signature in the electric Hall conductivity, which is identified in existing experimental data, and yields further novel predictions. For insulating materials with translation invariance, the Hall viscosity can be directly determined from the Skyrmion density and the thermal Hall conductivity to be measured as a function of momentum.
The anomalous Hall effect (AHE), a Hall signal occurring without an external magnetic field, is one of the most significant phenomena. However, understanding the AHE mechanism has been challenging and largely restricted to ferromagnetic metals. Here, we investigate the recently discovered AHE in the chiral antiferromagnet Mn3Sn by measuring a thermal analog of the AHE, known as an anomalous thermal Hall effect (ATHE). The amplitude of the ATHE scales with the anomalous Hall conductivity of Mn3Sn over a wide temperature range, demonstrating that the AHE of Mn3Sn arises from a dissipationless intrinsic mechanism associated with the Berry curvature. Moreover, we find that the dissipationless AHE is significantly stabilized by shifting the Fermi level toward the magnetic Weyl points. Thus, in Mn3Sn, the Berry curvature emerging from the proposed magnetic Weyl fermion state is a key factor for the observed AHE and ATHE.