Chiral Anomaly and Diffusive Magnetotransport in Weyl Metals

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory linking chiral anomaly to diffusive magnetotransport in Weyl metals, predicting a universal quadratic negative magnetoresistance caused by magnetic-field-induced charge coupling.

Contribution

It introduces coupled diffusion equations for charge densities in Weyl metals, revealing how chiral anomaly influences magnetotransport phenomena.

Findings

Chiral anomaly causes magnetic-field-induced coupling between charge densities.

Quadratic negative magnetoresistance is a universal observable effect.

This effect dominates other magnetoresistance contributions under certain conditions.

Abstract

We present a microscopic theory of diffusive magnetotransport in Weyl metals and clarify its relation to chiral anomaly. We derive coupled diffusion equations for the total and axial charge densities and show that chiral anomaly manifests as a magnetic-field-induced coupling between them. We demonstrate that a universal experimentally-observable consequence of this coupling in magnetotransport in Weyl metals is a quadratic negative magnetoresistance, which will dominate all other contributions to magnetoresistance under certain conditions.