Magnetic textures and dynamics in magnetic Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper reviews how magnetic textures like domain walls and skyrmions influence Weyl electrons in magnetic Weyl semimetals, highlighting recent theoretical and experimental advances and the role of axial gauge fields.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of magnetic textures in Weyl semimetals and introduces the concept of axial gauge fields to describe their effects on Weyl electrons.

Findings

Magnetic textures can significantly modify Weyl electron properties.

The concept of axial gauge fields effectively models magnetic texture effects.

Recent progress in experimental detection of magnetic textures in Weyl semimetals.

Abstract

Recent theoretical and experimental attemps have been successful in finding magnetic Weyl semimetal phases, which show both nodal-point structure in the electronic bands and magnetic orders. Beyond uniform ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic orders, nonuniform magnetic textures, such as domain walls and skyrmions, may even more enrich the properties of the Weyl electrons in such materials. This article gives a topical review on interplay between Weyl electrons and magnetic textures in those magnetic Weyl semimetals. The basics of magnetic textures in non-topological magnetic metals are reviewed first, and then the effect of magnetic textures in Weyl semimetals is discussed, regarding the recent theoretical and experimental progress therein. The idea of the fictitious "axial gauge fields" is pointed out, which effectively describes the effect of magnetic textures on the Weyl electrons and can well account for the properties of the electrons localized around magnetic domain walls.