Theoretische Physik and Station Q Zurich, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Nature. 2015 Nov 26;527(7579):495-8. doi: 10.1038/nature15768.
Fermions--elementary particles such as electrons--are classified as Dirac, Majorana or Weyl. Majorana and Weyl fermions had not been observed experimentally until the recent discovery of condensed matter systems such as topological superconductors and semimetals, in which they arise as low-energy excitations. Here we propose the existence of a previously overlooked type of Weyl fermion that emerges at the boundary between electron and hole pockets in a new phase of matter. This particle was missed by Weyl because it breaks the stringent Lorentz symmetry in high-energy physics. Lorentz invariance, however, is not present in condensed matter physics, and by generalizing the Dirac equation, we find the new type of Weyl fermion. In particular, whereas Weyl semimetals--materials hosting Weyl fermions--were previously thought to have standard Weyl points with a point-like Fermi surface (which we refer to as type-I), we discover a type-II Weyl point, which is still a protected crossing, but appears at the contact of electron and hole pockets in type-II Weyl semimetals. We predict that WTe2 is an example of a topological semimetal hosting the new particle as a low-energy excitation around such a type-II Weyl point. The existence of type-II Weyl points in WTe2 means that many of its physical properties are very different to those of standard Weyl semimetals with point-like Fermi surfaces.
费米子——如电子等基本粒子——可分为狄拉克费米子、马约拉纳费米子和外尔费米子。直到最近在凝聚态物质系统(如拓扑超导体和半导体)中发现了马约拉纳费米子和外尔费米子,它们才作为低能激发态被实验观测到。在这里,我们提出了一种以前被忽视的外尔费米子的存在,它出现在物质的新相中电子和空穴口袋的边界处。这种粒子被外尔忽略了,因为它打破了高能物理中的严格洛伦兹对称性。然而,洛伦兹不变性在凝聚态物理中并不存在,通过推广狄拉克方程,我们发现了这种新型的外尔费米子。特别是,外尔半金属——承载外尔费米子的材料——以前被认为具有具有点状费米面的标准外尔点(我们称之为 I 型),我们发现了一种 II 型外尔点,它仍然是一个受保护的交叉点,但出现在 II 型外尔半金属的电子和空穴口袋的接触处。我们预测 WTe2 是拓扑半金属的一个例子,它在这种 II 型外尔点周围作为低能激发承载着这种新粒子。WTe2 中 II 型外尔点的存在意味着其许多物理性质与具有点状费米面的标准外尔半金属非常不同。