Causal structure of interacting Weyl fermions in condensed matter systems

Wei-Chi Chiu, Guoqing Chang (), Gennevieve Macam, Ilya Belopolski, Shin-Ming Huang, Robert Markiewicz, Jia-Xin Yin, Zi-Jia Cheng, Chi-Cheng Lee, Tay-Rong Chang, Feng-Chuan Chuang, Su-Yang Xu, Hsin Lin, M. Zahid Hasan and Arun Bansil
Additional contact information
Wei-Chi Chiu: Northeastern University
Guoqing Chang: Nanyang Technological University
Gennevieve Macam: University of the Philippines
Ilya Belopolski: Princeton University
Shin-Ming Huang: National Sun Yat-sen University
Robert Markiewicz: Northeastern University
Jia-Xin Yin: Southern University of Science and Technology
Zi-Jia Cheng: Princeton University
Chi-Cheng Lee: Tamkang University
Tay-Rong Chang: National Center for Theoretical Sciences
Feng-Chuan Chuang: National Sun Yat-sen University
Su-Yang Xu: Harvard University
Hsin Lin: Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica
M. Zahid Hasan: Princeton University
Arun Bansil: Northeastern University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The spacetime light cone is central to the definition of causality in the theory of relativity. Recently, links between relativistic and condensed matter physics have been uncovered, where relativistic particles can emerge as quasiparticles in the energy-momentum space of matter. Here, we unveil an energy-momentum analogue of the spacetime light cone by mapping time to energy, space to momentum, and the light cone to the Weyl cone. We show that two Weyl quasiparticles can only interact to open a global energy gap if they lie in each other’s energy-momentum dispersion cones–analogous to two events that can only have a causal connection if they lie in each other’s light cones. Moreover, we demonstrate that the causality of surface chiral modes in quantum matter is entangled with the causality of bulk Weyl fermions. Furthermore, we identify a unique quantum horizon region and an associated ‘thick horizon’ in the emergent causal structure.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37931-w

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