Possible Weyl fermions in the magnetic Kondo system CeSb

Abstract

Materials where the electronic bands have unusual topologies allow for the realization of novel physics and have a wide range of potential applications. When two electronic bands with linear dispersions intersect at a point, the excitations could be described as Weyl fermions which are massless particles with a particular chirality. Here we report evidence for the presence of Weyl fermions in the ferromagnetic state of the low-carrier density, strongly correlated Kondo lattice system CeSb, from electronic structure calculations and angle-dependent magnetoresistance measurements. When the applied magnetic field is parallel to the electric current, a pronounced negative magnetoresistance is observed within the ferromagnetic state, which is destroyed upon slightly rotating the field away. These results give evidence for CeSb belonging to a new class of Kondo lattice materials with Weyl fermions in the ferromagnetic state.

18 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary Information available from journal link (open access)