The holographic Weyl semi-metal

Abstract

We present a holographic model of a Weyl semi-metal. We show the evidences that upon varying a mass parameter the model undergoes a sharp crossover at small temperature from a topologically non-trivial state to a trivial one. The order parameter is the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and we find that it is very strongly suppressed above a critical value of the mass parameter. This can be taken as a hint for an underlying topological quantum phase transition. We give an interpretation of the results in terms of a holographic RG flow and compare to a weakly coupled field theoretical model. Since there are no fermionic quasiparticle excitations in the strongly coupled holographic model the presence of an anomalous Hall effect cannot be bound to notions of topology in momentum spaces.