Weyl-Kondo Semimetal in Heavy Fermion Systems

TL;DR

This paper predicts a Weyl-Kondo semimetal phase in heavy fermion systems, characterized by topologically nontrivial quasiparticles emerging from strong correlations, with potential experimental realization in Ce$_3$Bi$_4$Pd$_3$.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model for Weyl-Kondo semimetals in strongly correlated systems, linking topological features with Kondo physics in heavy fermion materials.

Findings

Identification of Weyl nodes emerging from Kondo effect

Surface Fermi arcs in the proposed phase

Relevance to Ce$_3$Bi$_4$Pd$_3$ heavy fermion compound

Abstract

Insulating states can be topologically nontrivial, a well-established notion that is exemplified by the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators. By contrast, topological metals have not been experimentally evidenced until recently. In systems with strong correlations, they have yet to be identified. Heavy fermion semimetals are a prototype of strongly correlated systems and, given their strong spin-orbit coupling, present a natural setting to make progress. Here we advance a Weyl-Kondo semimetal phase in a periodic Anderson model on a noncentrosymmetric lattice. The quasiparticles near the Weyl nodes develop out of the Kondo effect, as do the surface states that feature Fermi arcs. We determine the key signatures of this phase, which are realized in the heavy fermion semimetal Ce$_3$Bi$_4$Pd$_3$. Our findings provide the much-needed theoretical foundation for the experimental search of topological metals with strong correlations, and open up a new avenue for systematic studies of such quantum phases that naturally entangle multiple degrees of freedom.