Fundamental laws of chiral band crossings: Local constraints, global constraints, and topological phase diagrams

• Published in: Physical review research Vol. 5; no. 4; p. 043165
• Main Authors: Alpin, Kirill, Hirschmann, Moritz M., Heinsdorf, Niclas, Leonhardt, Andreas, Yau, Wan Yee, Wu, Xianxin, Schnyder, Andreas P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 01.11.2023
• ISSN: 2643-1564; 2643-1564
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043165

We derive two fundamental laws of chiral band crossings: (i) a local constraint relating the Chern number to phase jumps of rotation eigenvalues and (ii) a global constraint determining the number of chiral crossings on rotation axes. Together with the fermion doubling theorem, these laws describe all conditions that a network of chiral band crossing must satisfy. We apply the fundamental laws to prove the existence of enforced double Weyl points, nodal planes, and generic Weyl points, among others. In addition, we show that chiral space group symmetries can not stabilize nodal lines with finite Chern numbers. Combining the local constraint with explicit low-energy models, we determine the generic topological phase diagrams of all multifold crossings. Remarkably, we find a fourfold crossing with Chern number 5, which exceeds the previously conceived maximum Chern number of 4. We identify materials crystallizing in space group 198, such as B20 materials and BaAsPt, as suitable compounds with this Chern number 5 crossing.