Chiral Weyl-Kondo semimetals and hexagonal heavy fermion systems

TL;DR

This paper explores chiral Weyl-Kondo semimetals in hexagonal heavy fermion systems, identifying candidate materials and developing a new automated search strategy for strongly correlated topological phases.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic search method for correlated topological materials and identifies specific heavy fermion compounds as promising Weyl-Kondo semimetal candidates.

Findings

Identification of Weyl-Kondo semimetals in hexagonal heavy fermion systems.

Development of an automated search strategy for correlated topological materials.

Proposal of candidate compounds CePt$_2$B, Ce$_2$NiGe$_3$, and Ce$_6$Co$_{2- ext{}} ext{Si}_3$.

Abstract

Strong correlation, in concert with symmetry and topology, engenders novel gapless phases of matter, though only a tip of the iceberg has been seen. An exemplary framework is provided by Weyl-Kondo semimetals, in which Weyl fermions develop through crystalline symmetry constraints on the emergent low-energy heavy-fermion excitations. This paradigm has opened up new opportunities to explore correlated topologies without a noninteracting counterpart, but fully realizing this potential requires a large base of candidate materials. Here we confront the challenge on both fronts by studying heavy fermion systems with hexagonal space groups. This family contains a large number of chiral nonsymmorphic crystal structures that promote Weyl degeneracies and, in addition, feature geometric frustration in the $f$-electron magnetism. Our calculations for the heavy fermion states identify Weyl-Kondo semimetals with chiral or achiral Weyl nodes in the respective structural classes. We also develop the first search strategy of any kind for the difficult case of strongly correlated materials, which is also suitable for automation, using a combination of materials database, symmetry classification and search for desired experimental properties, and propose as candidate topological heavy fermion systems the chiral CePt$_2$B and achiral Ce$_2$NiGe$_3$ and Ce$_6$Co$_{2-\delta}$Si$_3$. Our findings raise the prospect for strongly correlated metallic topology in the unusual setting of exotic quantum magnetism and, moreover, point a way to go beyond serendipity in the search for novel strongly correlated quantum materials.