Electronic correlations and flattened band in magnetic Weyl semimetal candidate Co3Sn2S2.

The interplay between electronic correlations and topological protection may offer a rich avenue for discovering emergent quantum phenomena in condensed matter. However, electronic correlations have so far been little investigated in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) by experiments. Here, we report a combined optical spectroscopy and theoretical calculation study on the strength and effect of electronic correlations in a magnet Co3Sn2S2. The electronic kinetic energy estimated from our optical data is about half of that obtained from single-particle ab initio calculations in the ferromagnetic ground state, which indicates intermediate-strength electronic correlations in this system. Furthermore, comparing the energy and side-slope ratios between the interband-transition peaks at high energies in the experimental and single-particle-calculation-derived optical conductivity spectra with the bandwidth-renormalization factors obtained by many-body calculations enables us to estimate the Coulomb-interaction strength (U âˆ¼ 4 eV) in Co3Sn2S2. Besides, a sharp experimental optical conductivity peak at low energy, which is absent in the single-particle-calculation-derived spectrum but is consistent with the optical conductivity peaks obtained by many-body calculations with U âˆ¼ 4 eV, indicates that an electronic band connecting the two Weyl cones is flattened by electronic correlations and emerges near the Fermi energy in Co3Sn2S2. Our work paves the way for exploring flat-band-generated quantum phenomena in WSMs.

Publisher's Note: MoTe_{2}: A Type-II Weyl Topological Metal [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 056805 (2016)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.056805.

Non-Abelian band topology in noninteracting metals.

Electron energy bands of crystalline solids generically exhibit degeneracies called band-structure nodes. Here, we introduce non-Abelian topological charges that characterize line nodes inside the momentum space of crystalline metals with space-time inversion (𝒫𝒯) symmetry and with weak spin-orbit coupling. We show that these are quaternion charges, similar to those describing disclinations in biaxial nematics. Starting from two-band considerations, we develop the complete many-band description of nodes in the presence of 𝒫𝒯 and mirror symmetries, which allows us to investigate the topological stability of nodal chains in metals. The non-Abelian charges put strict constraints on the possible nodal-line configurations. Our analysis goes beyond the standard approach to band topology and implies the existence of one-dimensional topological phases not present in existing classifications.

Orbital Contributions to the Electron g Factor in Semiconductor Nanowires.

Recent experiments on Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanowires [S. M. Albrecht, A. P. Higginbotham, M. Madsen, F. Kuemmeth, T. S. Jespersen, J. Nygård, P. Krogstrup, and C. M. Marcus, Nature (London) 531, 206 (2016)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/nature17162] revealed a surprisingly large electronic Landé g factor, several times larger than the bulk value-contrary to the expectation that confinement reduces the g factor. Here we assess the role of orbital contributions to the electron g factor in nanowires and quantum dots. We show that an L·S coupling in higher subbands leads to an enhancement of the g factor of an order of magnitude or more for small effective mass semiconductors. We validate our theoretical finding with simulations of InAs and InSb, showing that the effect persists even if cylindrical symmetry is broken. A huge anisotropy of the enhanced g factors under magnetic field rotation allows for a straightforward experimental test of this theory.

MoTe_{2}: A Type-II Weyl Topological Metal.

Based on the ab initio calculations, we show that MoTe_{2}, in its low-temperature orthorhombic structure characterized by an x-ray diffraction study at 100 K, realizes 4 type-II Weyl points between the Nth and (N+1)th bands, where N is the total number of valence electrons per unit cell. Other WPs and nodal lines between different other bands also appear close to the Fermi level due to a complex topological band structure. We predict a series of strain-driven topological phase transitions in this compound, opening a wide range of possible experimental realizations of different topological semimetal phases. Crucially, with no strain, the number of observable surface Fermi arcs in this material is 2-the smallest number of arcs consistent with time-reversal symmetry.

Topological Phases in InAs_{1-x}Sb_{x}: From Novel Topological Semimetal to Majorana Wire.

Superconductor proximitized one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) are, at this time, the most promising candidates for the realization of topological quantum information processing. In current experiments the SOI originates predominantly from extrinsic fields, induced by finite size effects and applied gate voltages. The dependence of the topological transition in these devices on microscopic details makes scaling to a large number of devices difficult unless a material with dominant intrinsic bulk SOI is used. Here, we show that wires made of certain ordered alloys InAs_{1-x}Sb_{x} have spin splittings up to 20 times larger than those reached in pristine InSb wires. In particular, we show this for a stable ordered CuPt structure at x=0.5, which has an inverted band ordering and realizes a novel type of a topological semimetal with triple degeneracy points in the bulk spectrum that produce topological surface Fermi arcs. Experimentally achievable strains can either drive this compound into a topological insulator phase or restore the normal band ordering, making the CuPt-ordered InAs_{0.5}Sb_{0.5} a semiconductor with a large intrinsic linear in k bulk spin splitting.

Nodal-chain metals.

The band theory of solids is arguably the most successful theory of condensed-matter physics, providing a description of the electronic energy levels in various materials. Electronic wavefunctions obtained from the band theory enable a topological characterization of metals for which the electronic spectrum may host robust, topologically protected, fermionic quasiparticles. Many of these quasiparticles are analogues of the elementary particles of the Standard Model, but others do not have a counterpart in relativistic high-energy theories. A complete list of possible quasiparticles in solids is lacking, even in the non-interacting case. Here we describe the possible existence of a hitherto unrecognized type of fermionic excitation in metals. This excitation forms a nodal chain-a chain of connected loops in momentum space-along which conduction and valence bands touch. We prove that the nodal chain is topologically distinct from previously reported excitations. We discuss the symmetry requirements for the appearance of this excitation and predict that it is realized in an existing material, iridium tetrafluoride (IrF4), as well as in other compounds of this class of materials. Using IrF4 as an example, we provide a discussion of the topological surface states associated with the nodal chain. We argue that the presence of the nodal-chain fermions will result in anomalous magnetotransport properties, distinct from those of materials exhibiting previously known excitations.

Type-II Weyl semimetals.

Fermions--elementary particles such as electrons--are classified as Dirac, Majorana or Weyl. Majorana and Weyl fermions had not been observed experimentally until the recent discovery of condensed matter systems such as topological superconductors and semimetals, in which they arise as low-energy excitations. Here we propose the existence of a previously overlooked type of Weyl fermion that emerges at the boundary between electron and hole pockets in a new phase of matter. This particle was missed by Weyl because it breaks the stringent Lorentz symmetry in high-energy physics. Lorentz invariance, however, is not present in condensed matter physics, and by generalizing the Dirac equation, we find the new type of Weyl fermion. In particular, whereas Weyl semimetals--materials hosting Weyl fermions--were previously thought to have standard Weyl points with a point-like Fermi surface (which we refer to as type-I), we discover a type-II Weyl point, which is still a protected crossing, but appears at the contact of electron and hole pockets in type-II Weyl semimetals. We predict that WTe2 is an example of a topological semimetal hosting the new particle as a low-energy excitation around such a type-II Weyl point. The existence of type-II Weyl points in WTe2 means that many of its physical properties are very different to those of standard Weyl semimetals with point-like Fermi surfaces.

Proposal for direct measurement of topological invariants in optical lattices.

We propose an experimental technique for classifying the topology of band structures realized in optical lattices, based on a generalization of topological charge pumping in quantum Hall systems to cold atoms in optical lattices. Time-of-flight measurement along one spatial direction combined with in situ detection along the transverse direction provides a direct measure of the system's Chern number, as we illustrate by calculations for the Hofstadter lattice. Based on an analogy with Wannier function techniques of topological band theory, the method is very general and also allows the measurement of other topological invariants, such as the Z(2) topological invariant of time-reversal symmetric insulators.