Adiabatic dechiralisation and thermodynamics of Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermodynamic effects of the chiral anomaly in disordered Weyl semimetals, focusing on adiabatic dechiralization and its potential for low-temperature refrigeration, along with field-dependent heat capacity.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of adiabatic dechiralization in Weyl semimetals and provides a quantitative description of this phenomenon and its experimental implications.

Findings

Demonstrates how parallel electric and magnetic fields induce heat exchange in Weyl semimetals.

Shows the heat capacity depends on applied parallel electric and magnetic fields.

Identifies experimental conditions for observing adiabatic dechiralization.

Abstract

We study thermodynamic manifestations of the chiral anomaly in disordered Weyl semimetals. We focus, in particular, on the effect which we call 'adiabatic dechiralization,' the phenomenon in which a change in temperature and/or an absorption or release of heat results from applying parallel electric and magnetic fields that change the imbalance of quasiparticles with different chiralities (at different Weyl nodes). This effect is similar to that of adiabatic demagnetization, which is commonly used as a method of low-temperature refrigeration. We describe this phenomenon quantitatively and discuss experimental conditions favorable for its observation. A related phenomenon, which we analyze and which is readily observable in experiments, is the dependency of the heat capacity of a Weyl semimetal on parallel electric and magnetic fields.