Response properties of axion insulators and Weyl semimetals driven by screw dislocations and dynamical axion strings

Abstract

The authors here explore the properties of Weyl semimetals and axion insulators coupled to geometry. The novel interplay between axion strings and lattice dislocation defects are studied through both effective field theory and microscopic arguments. Various new phenomena are proposed for a Weyl semimetal with dislocations. This work should be of great interest both in the context of topological semimetal/insulators and for the problem of topological defects in strongly correlated systems.