Kane fermions are characterized by a linear Dirac cone intersecting with a flat band, resembling a pseudo-spin-1 Dirac semimetal. Similar to relativistic Dirac fermions, Kane fermions satisfy a linear energy-momentum relation and can be classified as
being pseudo-relativistic. Though not protected by symmetry or by topology, Kane fermions can emerge by suitable band engineering, for example, in mercury-telluride compounds. Here we study the Berry curvature of Kane fermions that emerges in the presence of time-reversal symmetry breaking weak Zeeman fields. We discuss the related anomalous transport coefficients and discuss the anisotropy in these responses that can be probed in experiments.
Attractive interaction between spinless fermions in a two-dimensional lattice drives the formation of a topological superfluid. But the topological phase is dynamically unstable towards phase separation when the system has a high density of states an
d large interaction strength. This limits the critical temperature to an experimentally challenging regime where, for example, even ultracold atoms and molecules in optical lattices would struggle to realize the topological superfluid. We propose that the introduction of a weaker longer-range repulsion, in addition to the short-range attraction between lattice fermions, will suppress the phase separation instability. Taking the honeycomb lattice as an example, we show that our proposal significantly enlarges the stable portion of the topological superfluid phase and increases the critical temperature by an order of magnitude. Our work opens a route to enhance the stability of topological superfluids by engineering inter-particle interactions.
Focusing on the implications of recent experiments on Majorana zero modes in semiconductor-superconductor (SM-SC) heterostructures, we critically examine the quantization of the zero-bias differential conductance as a possible unambiguous signature o
f Majorana physics in the presence of disorder. By numerically calculating the zero-bias conductance (ZBC) maps as function of Zeeman splitting and chemical potential for different disorder realizations, we show that the presence of quantized islands characterized by a ZBC value (approximately) equal to $2e^2/h$ and having a finite area/volume in a multi-dimensional parameter space represents a unique signature of Majorana physics supporting Majorana zero modes (MZMs) or partially-separated Majorana modes (ps-MMs). We find that in the presence of strong disorder Majorana physics only emerges locally and gives rise to ps-MMs, which, in turn, generate small quantized islands when one of the Majorana modes is located at the end of the system. Observing these small islands may require sample selection and the systematic scanning of a large volume in the control parameter space. Upon decreasing disorder, the quantized islands increase in size and eventually coalesce into large topological regions. Since the presence of MZMs localized at the opposite ends of the system is typically associated with large quantized islands, looking for MZM-induced edge-to-edge correlations is premature in the absence of convincing experimental evidence for (even small) quantized islands. We conclude that the observation of quantized islands demonstrates unambiguously the presence of the key ingredients necessary for Majorana physics, provides an excellent diagnostic tool for evaluating the disorder strength, and, consequently, represents the next natural milestone in the Majorana search.
We present a pedagogical review of topological superconductivity and its consequences in spin-orbit coupled semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures. We start by reviewing the historical origins of the notions of Dirac and Majorana fermions in particle physics and discuss how lower dimension
After the experimental realization, the Berry curvature dipole (BCD) induced nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) has attracted tremendous interest to the condensed matter community. Here, we investigate another family of Hall effect, namely, chiral anomaly
induced nonlinear Hall effect (CNHE) in multi-Weyl semimetal (mWSM). In contrast to the BCD induced NLHE, CNHE appears because of the combination of both chiral anomaly and anomalous velocity due to non-trivial Berry curvature. Using the semiclassical Boltzmann theory within the relaxation time approximation, we show that, in contrast to the chiral anomaly induced linear Hall effect, the magnitude of CNHE decreases with the topological charge n. Interestingly, we find that unlike the case of n=1, the CNHE has different behaviors in different planes. Our prediction on the behavior of CNHE in mWSM can directly be checked in experiments.
Chiral anomaly or Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) has a significant impact on the electron transport behaviors, leading to remarkable longitudinal or planar electrical and thermoelectric transport phenomena in the presence of elec
tromagnetic gauge fields. These phenomena are consequences of the imbalanced chiral charge and energy induced by chiral anomaly in the presence of parallel electric ($mathbf{E}$) and magnetic ($mathbf{B}$) fields ($mathbf{E cdot B } eq 0$) or $(mathbf{B cdot abla }T eq 0)$ ($mathbf{ abla}T$ is the thermal gradient). We here propose another two fascinating transport properties, namely, the nonlinear planar Nernst effect and nonlinear planar thermal Hall effect induced by chiral anomaly in the presence of $mathbf{B cdot abla}T eq 0$ in WSMs. Using the semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, we derive the analytical expressions for the chiral anomaly induced nonlinear Nernst and thermal Hall transport coefficients and also evaluate the fundamental mathematical relations among them in the nonlinear regime. The formulas we find in this current work are consistent with that predicted for the nonlinear anomalous electrical and thermoelectric effects induced by Berry curvature dipole recently. Additionally, in contrast to the recent work, by utilizing the lattice Weyl Hamiltonian with intrinsic chiral chemical potential, we find that the chiral anomaly induced nonlinear planar effects can exist even for a pair of oppositely tilted or non-tilted Weyl cones in both time reversal and inversion broken WSMs. The chiral anomaly induced nonlinear planar effects predicted here along with the related parameter dependencies are hence possible to be realized in realistic WSMs in experiment.
Topological Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have been predicted to be excellent candidates for detecting Berry curvature dipole (BCD) and the related non-linear effects in electronics and optics due to the large Berry curvature concentrated around the Weyl no
des. And yet, linearized models of isolated tilted Weyl cones only realize a diagonal non-zero BCD tensor which sum to zero in the model of WSM with multiple Weyl nodes in the presence of mirror symmetry. On the other hand, recent textit{ab initio} work has found that realistic WSMs like TaAs-type or MoTe$_2$-type compounds, which have mirror symmetry, indeed show an off-diagonal BCD tensor with an enhanced magnitude for its non-zero components. So far, there is a lack of theoretical work addressing this contradiction for 3D WSMs. In this paper, we systematically study the BCD in 3D WSMs using lattice Weyl Hamiltonians, which go beyond the linearized models. We find that the non-zero BCD and its related important features for these WSMs do not rely on the contribution from the Weyl nodes. Instead, they are dependent on the part of the Fermi surface that lies textit{between} the Weyl nodes, in the region of the reciprocal space where neighboring Weyl cones overlap. For large enough chemical potential such Fermi surfaces are present in the lattice Weyl Hamiltonians as well as in the realistic WSMs. We also show that, a lattice Weyl Hamitonian with a non-zero chiral chemical potential for the Weyl cones can also support dips or peaks in the off-diagonal components of the BCD tensor near the Weyl nodes themselves, consistent with recent textit{ab initio} work.
Two-dimensional magnetic insulators can be promising hosts for topological magnons. In this study, we show that ABC-stacked honeycomb lattice multilayers with alternating Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) reveal a rich topological magnon phase
diagram. Based on our bandstructure and Berry curvature calculations, we demonstrate jumps in the thermal Hall behavior that corroborate with topological phase transitions triggered by adjusting the DMI and interlayer coupling. We connect the phase diagram of generic multilayers to a bilayer and a trilayer system. We find an even-odd effect amongst the multilayers where the even layers show no jump in thermal Hall conductivity, but the odd layers do. We also observe the presence of topological proximity effect in our trilayer. Our results offer new schemes to manipulate Chern numbers and their measurable effects in topological magnonic systems.
The manifestation of chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals typically relies on the observation of longitudinal magnetoconductance (LMC) along with the planar Hall effect, with a specific magnetic field and angle dependence. Here we solve the Boltzmann eq
uation in the semiclassical regime for a prototype of a Weyl semimetal, allowing for both intravalley and intervalley scattering, along with including effects from the orbital magnetic moment (OMM), in a geometry where the electric and magnetic fields are not necessarily parallel to each other. We construct the phase diagram in the relevant parameter space that describes the shift from positive to negative LMC in the presence of OMM and sufficiently strong intervalley scattering, as has been recently pointed out for only parallel electric and magnetic fields. On the other hand, we find that the chiral anomaly contribution to the planar Hall effect always remains positive (unlike the LMC) irrespective of the inclusion or exclusion of OMM, or the strength of the intervalley scattering. Our predictions can be directly tested in experiments, and may be employed as new diagnostic procedures to verify chiral anomaly in Weyl systems.
In a series of recent papers anomalous Hall and Nernst effects have been theoretically discussed in the non-linear regime and have seen some early success in experiments. In this paper, by utilizing the role of Berry curvature dipole, we derive the f
undamental mathematical relations between the anomalous electric and thermoelectric transport coefficients in the non-linear regime. The formulae we derive replace the celebrated Wiedemann-Franz law and Mott relation of anomalous thermoelectric transport coefficients defined in the linear response regime. In addition to fundamental and testable new formulae, an important byproduct of this work is the prediction of nonlinear anomalous thermal Hall effect which can be observed in experiments.
