English

Weyl semi-metals : a short review

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2016-03-23 v2

Abstract

We begin this review with an introduction and a discussion of Weyl fermions as emergent particles in condensed matter systems, and explain how high energy phenomena like the chiral anomaly can be seen in low energy experiments. We then explain the current interest in the field due to the recent discovery of real materials which behave like Weyl semi-metals. We then describe a simple lattice model of a topological insulator, which can be turned into a Weyl semi-metal on breaking either time-reversal or inversion symmetry, and show how flat bands or Fermi arcs develop. Finally, we describe some new phenomena which occur due to the chiral nature of the Weyl nodes and end with possible future prospects in the field, both in theory and experiment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.02821,
  title  = {Weyl semi-metals : a short review},
  author = {Sumathi Rao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.02821},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Invited review for a forthcoming issue of the Journal of the Indian Institute of Science on Transport in Mesoscopic systems, 12 pages, 8 figures, added and corrected references

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:07:05.549Z