Abstract
The conservation laws, such as those of charge, energy and momentum, have a central role in physics. In some special cases, classical conservation laws are broken at the quantum level by quantum fluctuations, in which case the theory is said to have quantum anomalies1. One of the most prominent examples is the chiral anomaly2,3, which involves massless chiral fermions. These particles have their spin, or internal angular momentum, aligned either parallel or antiparallel with their linear momentum, labelled as left and right chirality, respectively. In three spatial dimensions, the chiral anomaly is the breakdown (as a result of externally applied parallel electric and magnetic fields4) of the classical conservation law that dictates that the number of massless fermions of each chirality are separately conserved. The current that measures the difference between left- and right-handed particles is called the axial current and is not conserved at the quantum level. In addition, an underlying curved space-time provides a distinct contribution to a chiral imbalance, an effect known as the mixed axial–gravitational anomaly1, but this anomaly has yet to be confirmed experimentally. However, the presence of a mixed gauge–gravitational anomaly has recently been tied to thermoelectrical transport in a magnetic field5,6, even in flat space-time, suggesting that such types of mixed anomaly could be experimentally probed in condensed matter systems known as Weyl semimetals7. Here, using a temperature gradient, we observe experimentally a positive magneto-thermoelectric conductance in the Weyl semimetal niobium phosphide (NbP) for collinear temperature gradients and magnetic fields that vanishes in the ultra-quantum limit, when only a single Landau level is occupied. This observation is consistent with the presence of a mixed axial–gravitational anomaly, providing clear evidence for a theoretical concept that has so far eluded experimental detection.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the research grant DFG-RSF (NI616 22/1) ‘Contribution of topological states to the thermoelectric properties of Weyl semimetals’, Severo Ochoa SEV-2012-0249, FPA 2015-65480-P and SFB 1143, by the Helmholtz association through VI-521, and by the DFG (Emmy Noether programme) via grant ME 4844/1. We thank T. Sturm and A. Pöhl, for experimental support. We also acknowledge support by W. Riess, K. Moselund and H. Riel, and thank C. Bollinger for copy-editing.
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J.G. conceived the experiment. M.S., C.S. and V.S. synthesized the single-crystal bulk samples. R.H. characterized the crystal structure. B.R. supervised the micro-ribbon definition and the compositional analysis. A.C.N. fabricated the samples. J.G. carried out the thermoelectric transport measurements with the help of A.C.N. J.G., A.C.N., F.M., B.G., T.M. and A.G.G. analysed the data. B.G., C.F., B.Y. and K.N. supervised the project. A.G.G., T.M. and K.L. provided the theoretical background for the work. All authors contributed to interpreting the data and writing the manuscript.
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Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Figure 1 Material analysis of the NbP micro-ribbon.
a, Sketch of the structure of the NbP crystal. b, SEM image of a NbP micro-ribbon before device processing. The longitudinal direction of the ribbon corresponds to the [100] axis of the crystal. c, Spatial composition of an exemplary NbP micro-ribbon, measured from the top along [100] using SEM-EDX, reveals an average of 53% Nb, 45% P and 2% Ga. x100 is the distance from the end of the sample along [100]. d, XRD spectrum of the NbP at room temperature (Cu Ka radiation). a.u., arbitrary units.
Extended Data Figure 2 Optical micrograph of a measurement device.
The NbP micro-ribbon (green) is placed between two four-probe thermometers (grey), which also serve as electrical probes. The electrically insulated heater line (grey) close to one end of the sample creates a temperature gradient along the length of the sample.
Extended Data Figure 3 Isothermal (∇T = 0 K) current–voltage (J-V) characteristic of the NbP micro-ribbon at selected temperatures and zero magnetic field (B = 0 T).
The linearity of the curves reveals ohmic electrical contacts.
Extended Data Figure 4 Thermometer calibration.
Resistance R versus base temperature T of the cryostat, measured at isothermal conditions.
Extended Data Figure 6 Linear response of the thermoelectric current J to the temperature gradient ∇T.
We determine the thermo-conductance GT = J/|∇ T| from the slope of the linear fits. The error bars in Extended Data Fig. 8b are the uncertainties obtained from these fits.
Extended Data Figure 7 Linear response of the thermovoltage Vth to the temperature gradient ∇T.
The thermopower S = −Vth/|∇ T| is determined from linear fits of the data.
Extended Data Figure 8 Zero-field transport.
a, Electrical conductance G at zero magnetic field (B = 0 T) in isothermal conditions (∇ T = 0 K) as a function of the base temperature. Values of G are obtained from the slope of the linear fits of the data given in Extended Data Fig. 3. b, Thermoelectric conductance GT at zero magnetic field (B = 0 T) and with no electric field imposed (E = 0) as a function of the base temperature. Values of GT are obtained from the slope of the linear fits of the data shown in Extended Data Fig. 6. Error bars, fit uncertainty of the slope. c, Themopower S at zero magnetic field (B = 0 T) as a function of the base temperature. Values of S are obtained from the slope of the linear fits of the data shown in Extended Data Fig. 7. Error bars, fit uncertainty of the slope.
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Gooth, J., Niemann, A., Meng, T. et al. Experimental signatures of the mixed axial–gravitational anomaly in the Weyl semimetal NbP. Nature 547, 324–327 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23005
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23005
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