Type-III and IV interacting Weyl points

Abstract

3+1-dimensional Weyl fermions in interacting systems are described by effective quasi-relativistic Green’s functions parametrized by a 16-element matrix e_α^μ in an expansion around the Weyl point. The matrix e_α^μ can be naturally identified as an effective tetrad field for the fermions. The correspondence between the tetrad field and an effective quasi-relativistic metric g_μν governing the Weyl fermions allows for the possibility to simulate different classes of metric fields emerging in general relativity in interacting Weyl semimetals. According to this correspondence, there can be four types of Weyl fermions, depending on the signs of the components g⁰⁰ and g₀₀ of the effective metric. In addition to the conventional type-I fermions with a tilted Weyl cone and type-II fermions with an overtilted Weyl cone for g⁰⁰ > 0 and, respectively, g₀₀ > 0 or g₀₀ < 0, we find additional “type-III” and “type-IV” Weyl fermions with instabilities (complex frequencies) for g⁰⁰ < 0 and g₀₀ > 0 or g₀₀ < 0, respectively. While the type-I and type-II Weyl points allow us to simulate the black hole event horizon at an interface where g⁰⁰ changes sign, the type-III Weyl point leads to effective spacetimes with closed timelike curves.