Physical Review Research (Nov 2024)

Quantum description of Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals in a magnetic field

  • Tim Bauer,
  • Francesco Buccheri,
  • Alessandro De Martino,
  • Reinhold Egger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.043201
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 4
p. 043201

Abstract

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For a Weyl semimetal (WSM) in a magnetic field, a semiclassical description of the Fermi-arc surface state dynamics is usually employed for explaining various unconventional magnetotransport phenomena, e.g., Weyl orbits, the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect, and the high transmission through twisted WSM interfaces. For a half-space geometry, we determine the low-energy quantum eigenstates for a four-band model of a WSM in a magnetic field perpendicular to the surface. The eigenstates correspond to in- and out-going chiral Landau level (LL) states, propagating (anti)parallel to the field direction near different Weyl nodes, which are coupled by evanescent surface-state contributions generated by all other LLs. These replace the Fermi arc in a magnetic field. Computing the phase shift accumulated between in- and out-going chiral LL states, we compare our quantum-mechanical results to semiclassical predictions. We find quantitative agreement between both approaches.