Theoretical Discovery/Prediction: Weyl Semimetal states in the TaAs material (TaAs, NbAs, NbP, TaP) class

Understand

The recent discoveries of Dirac fermions in graphene and on the surface of topological insulators have ignited worldwide interest in physics and materials science.

• A Weyl semimetal is an unusual crystal where electrons also behave as massless quasi-particles but interestingly they are not Dirac fermions.
• These massless particles, Weyl fermions, were originally considered in massless quantum electrodynamics but have not been observed as a fundamental particle in nature.
• A Weyl semimetal provides a condensed matter realization of Weyl fermions, leading to unique transport properties with novel device applications.