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Quantum transport in 3D Weyl semimetals: Is there a metal-insulator transition?

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Abstract

We calculate the transport properties of three-dimensional Weyl fermions in a disordered environment. The resulting conductivity depends only on the Fermi energy and the scattering rate. First we study the conductivity at the spectral node for a fixed scattering rate and obtain a continuous transition from an insulator at weak disorder to a metal at stronger disorder. Within the self-consistent Born approximation the scattering rate depends on the Fermi energy. Then it is crucial that the limits of the conductivity for a vanishing Fermi energy and a vanishing scattering rate do not commute. As a result, there is also metallic behavior in the phase with vanishing scattering rate and only a quantum critical point remains as an insulating phase. The latter turns out to be a critical fixed point in terms of a renormalization-group flow.

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  1. Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135, Augsburg, Germany

    Klaus Ziegler

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  1. Klaus Ziegler
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Correspondence to Klaus Ziegler.

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Ziegler, K. Quantum transport in 3D Weyl semimetals: Is there a metal-insulator transition?. Eur. Phys. J. B 89, 268 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2016-70454-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2016-70454-2

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