A Weyl-Z 2 semimetal from holography

Abstract

Abstract We present effective field theories for the weakly coupled Weyl-Z 2 semimetal, as well as the holographic realization for the strongly coupled case. In both cases, the anomalous systems have both the chiral anomaly and the Z 2 anomaly and possess topological quantum phase transitions from the Weyl-Z 2 semimetal phases to partly or fully topological trivial phases. We find that the topological phase transition is characterized by the anomalous transport parameters, i.e. the anomalous Hall conductivity and the Z 2 anomalous Hall conductivity. These two parameters are nonzero at the Weyl-Z 2 semimetal phase and vanish at the topologically trivial phases. In the holographic case, the different behavior between the two anomalous transport coefficients is discussed. Our work reveals the novel phase structure of strongly interacting Weyl-Z 2 semimetal with two pairs of nodes.

Keywords

• Gauge-gravity correspondence
• Holography and condensed matter physics (AdS/CMT)