Physics Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium
Anton Burkov, University of Waterloo, Title of talk: Quantum anomalies and transport in topological semimetals
Abstract: I will describe recent work on magnetotransport phenomena in Weyl, Dirac and nodal line semimetals, which can be related
to quantum anomalies. I will demonstrate that transport phenomena in point-node (Weyl and Dirac semimetals) may be understood
from the viewpoint of the chiral anomaly, which leads to strong anisotropic magnetoresistance (negative longitudinal magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect). I will also show that nodal line semimetals exhibit a close analog of the parity anomaly, which is a known property of (2+1)-dimensional Dirac fermions. This new anomaly manifests in a singular response of nodal line semimetals to an applied magnetic field, in the form of plateau-like transitions in the anomalous Hall conductivity.