Linear magnetoconductivity in an intrinsic topological Weyl semimetal

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in an intrinsic Weyl semimetal, both longitudinal and transverse magnetoconductivity are positive, linear, and anisotropic near the Weyl nodes, revealing a fundamental link between linear magnetoconductivity and topological properties.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis showing linear magnetoconductivity in Weyl semimetals near the Weyl nodes, connecting it to the intrinsic topological phase.

Findings

Magnetoconductivity is positive and linear at Weyl nodes.

Longitudinal magnetoconductivity depends on impurity potential range.

Finite conductivity persists at zero magnetic field despite vanishing density of states.

Abstract

Searching for the signature of the violation of chiral charge conservation in solids has inspired a growing passion on the magneto-transport in topological semimetals. One of the open questions is how the conductivity depends on magnetic fields in a semimetal phase when the Fermi energy crosses the Weyl nodes. Here, we study both the longitudinal and transverse magnetoconductivity of a topological Weyl semimetal near the Weyl nodes with the help of a two-node model that includes all the topological semimetal properties. In the semimetal phase, the Fermi energy crosses only the 0th Landau bands in magnetic fields. For a finite potential range of impurities, it is found that both the longitudinal and transverse magnetoconductivity are positive and linear at the Weyl nodes, leading to an anisotropic and negative magnetoresistivity. The longitudinal magnetoconductivity depends on the potential range of impurities. The longitudinal conductivity remains finite at zero field, even though the density of states vanishes at the Weyl nodes. This work establishes a relation between the linear magnetoconductivity and the intrinsic topological Weyl semimetal phase.