Chiral symmetry restoration and the ultraquantum limit of axionic Charge Density Waves in Weyl Semimetals

Abstract

A new mechanism for chiral symmetry restoration at extreme high magnetic fields is proposed in the context of the Magnetic Catalysis scenario in Weyl Semimetals. Contrary to previous proposals, here we show that, at very large magnetic fields, the transverse velocity of the axion field, the phase mode of the chiral condensate, becomes effectively one-dimensional and its fluctuations destroy a possible nonzero value of this fermionic condensate. We also show that, despite of the U(1) chiral symmetry not being broken at extremely large magnetic fields, the spectrum of the system is comprised by a well defined gapless bosonic excitation, connected to the axion mode, and a correlated insulating fermionic liquid that is neutral to U(1) chiral transformations. When the theory is supplemented with the inclusion of dynamical electromagnetic fields, the chiral symmetry is broken again, and the conventional scenario of magnetic catalysis can be recovered.