English

On thermal Nieh-Yan anomaly in Weyl superfluids

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2020-08-26 v5 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We discuss the possibility of the torsional Nieh-Yan anomaly of the type μ(ej5μ)=γT2(TaTa)\mu (ej^\mu_5) =\gamma T^2({\cal T}^a \wedge {\cal T}_a) in Weyl superfluids, where TT is temperature and Ta{\cal T}^a is the effective or emergent torsion from the superfluid order parameter. As distinct from the dimensionful ultraviolet (UV) parameter Λ2\Lambda^2 in the conventional torsional Nieh-Yan anomaly, the parameter γ\gamma is dimensionless in canonical units. This suggests that such dimensionless parameter may be fundamental, being determined by the geometry, topology and number of chiral quantum fields in the system. By comparing this to a Weyl superfluid with low-temperature corrections, TΔ0T\ll\Delta_0, we show that such a term does exist in the hydrodynamics of a chiral pp-wave superfluid, such as 3^3He-A, or a chiral superconductor. We also discuss and show how other T2T^2 terms of similar form and of the same order in gradients, coming from e.g. Fermi-liquid corrections and the chiral chemical potential, can also be expressed in terms of dimensionless fundamental parameters with emergent low-energy relativistic fields. Lastly, we discuss our results in comparison to relativistic Weyl fermions and the connection of the torsional gravitational anomalies to thermal transport in Weyl systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.08936,
  title  = {On thermal Nieh-Yan anomaly in Weyl superfluids},
  author = {J. Nissinen and G. E. Volovik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.08936},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

10 pages, no figures, extended version