Two-dimensional Tunable Dirac/Weyl Semimetal in Non-Abelian Gauge Field

Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 6;9(1):18516. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54670-5.

Abstract

Three-dimensional(3D) Weyl semimetal(WSM) with linear energy spectra has attracted significant interest. Especially they have been observed experimentally in several solid materials with the breaking of inversion symmetry. Here we predict a new family of particle-hole([Formula: see text]) invariant 2D WSMs in the non-Abelian gauge field, which can emerge in the low energy bands being close to Fermi energy (dubbed Weyl-I) and the high energy bands being away from Fermi energy (dubbed Weyl-II), only when the time-reversal symmetry([Formula: see text]) of the 2D Dirac semimetal is broken in the presence of in-plane Zeeman fields. Moreover, a 2D Dirac node can split into a pair of Weyl nodes showing the same Berry phase, and the 2D WSM, being protected by [Formula: see text] symmetry, exhibits four Weyl-I nodes, whose energies are invariant with the variation of the magnetic field. The corresponding Fermi velocity and Berry connection have been calculated. Based on the 2D WSMs, we also examine inhomogeneous pairings of attractive Fermi gases and find a new kind of the LO states with the beat frequency. This 2D WSM provides a realistic and promising platform for exploring and manipulating exotic Weyl physics, which may increase the experimental feasibility in the context of ultracold atoms.