Hydrodynamic electron flow in a Weyl semimetal slab: Role of Chern-Simons terms

Understand

The hydrodynamic flow of the chiral electron fluid in a Weyl semimetal slab of finite thickness is studied by using the consistent hydrodynamic theory.

• The latter includes viscous, anomalous, and vortical effects, as well as accounts for dynamical electromagnetism.
• The energy and momentum separations between the Weyl nodes are taken into account via the topological Chern-Simons contributions in the electric current and charge densities in Maxwell's equations.
• When an external electric field is applied parallel to the slab, it is found that the electron fluid velocity has a nonuniform profile determined by the viscosity and the no-slip boundary conditions.