Plasmon mode as a detection of the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper explores how the chiral anomaly influences plasmon modes in Weyl semimetals, proposing that these modes can serve as signatures for detecting the anomaly and related phase transitions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the chiral anomaly induces unique plasmon modes in both intrinsic and doped Weyl semimetals, providing a new method for anomaly detection.

Findings

Chiral anomaly causes distinct plasmon modes in intrinsic Weyl semimetals.

Exotic properties in plasmon dispersion due to the chiral anomaly in doped Weyl semimetals.

Plasmon spectrum can detect Lifshitz transition in Weyl semimetals.

Abstract

Weyl semimetals are one kind of three-dimensional gapless semimetal with nontrivial topology in the momentum space. The chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals manifests as a charge imbalance between the Weyl nodes of opposite chiralities induced by parallel electric and magnetic fields. We investigate the chiral anomaly effect on the plasmon mode in both intrinsic and doped Weyl semimetals within the random phase approximation. We prove that the chiral anomaly gives rise to a different plasmon mode in intrinsic Weyl semimetals. We also find the chiral anomaly leads to some exotic properties in the plasmon dispersion in doped Weyl semimetals. Consequently, the unconventional plasmon mode acts as a signature of the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals, by which the spectrum of plasmon provides a proper way to detect the Lifshitz transition.