Work

Reinterpretation of chiral anomaly on a lattice

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Chiral anomalies are a quantum mechanical effect for massless Dirac fermions in both particle physics and condensed matter physics. Here we present a set of effective models for single massless Dirac fermions in one and three dimensions in the whole Brillouin zone from higher-dimensional Chern insulators, which uniquely capture both the chiral fermion behavior near the Dirac point and high-energy states at Brillouin zone boundaries. In the presence of electromagnetic fields, the chiral coefficient ${C}_{5}$ is found to be chemical potential dependent in general but quantized precisely at the Fermi surface where chiral symmetry is preserved. This result provides an alternative interpretation of a chiral anomaly on a lattice: The anomaly is caused by symmetry-broken states far below the Fermi surface and protected by the local chiral symmetry. Our analysis here might provide a potential theoretical foundation for applying the concept of chiral anomalies in condensed matter physics.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/g65h-sz4b

Authors: Huan-Wen Wang, Bo Fu, Shun-Qing Shen

Institutions: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Great Bay University, University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: Topological Materials and Phenomena

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, University Grants Committee, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

Awards: G4781833577, G5280831421, G5739187376, G7168333425, G7787312299