English

Dynamical Effects from Anomaly: Modified Electrodynamics in Weyl Semimetal

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2023-02-01 v1

Abstract

We discuss the modified quantum electrodynamics from a time-reversal-breaking Weyl semimetal coupled with a U(1)U(1) gauge (electromagnetic) field. A key role is played by the soft dispersion of the photons in a particular direction, say z^\hat{z}, due to the Hall conductivity of the Weyl semimetal. Due to the soft photon, the fermion velocity in z^\hat{z} is logarithmically reduced under renormalization group flow, together with the fine structure constant. Meanwhile, fermions acquire a finite lifetime from spontaneous emission of the soft photon, namely the Cherenkov radiation. At low energy EE, the inverse of the fermion lifetime scales as τ1E/PolyLog(E)\tau^{-1}\sim E/{\rm PolyLog}(E). Therefore, even though fermion quasiparticles are eventually well-defined at very low energy, over a wide intermediate energy window the Weyl semimetal behaves like a marginal Fermi liquid. Phenomenologically, our results are more relevant for emergent Weyl semimetals, where the fermions and photons all emerge from strongly correlated lattice systems. Possible experimental implications are discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.06641,
  title  = {Dynamical Effects from Anomaly: Modified Electrodynamics in Weyl Semimetal},
  author = {Xuzhe Ying and A. A. Burkov and Chong Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.06641},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

8 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T03:30:00.923Z