title: A Weyl Fermion semimetal with surface Fermi arcs in the transition metal monopnictide TaAs class.
abstract: Weyl fermions are massless chiral fermions that play an important role in quantum field theory but have never been observed as fundamental particles. A Weyl semimetal is an unusual crystal that hosts Weyl fermions as quasiparticle excitations and features Fermi arcs on its surface. Such a semimetal not only provides a condensed matter realization of the anomalies in quantum field theories but also demonstrates the topological classification beyond the gapped topological insulators. Here, we identify a topological Weyl semimetal state in the transition metal monopnictide materials class. Our first-principles calculations on TaAs reveal its bulk Weyl fermion cones and surface Fermi arcs. Our results show that in the TaAs-type materials the Weyl semimetal state does not depend on fine-tuning of chemical composition or magnetic order, which opens the door for the experimental realization of Weyl semimetals and Fermi arc surface states in real materials.
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546, Singapore [2] Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore.
authors.forename: Shin-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: 1] Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [2] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Su-Yang
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: 1] Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [2] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Belopolski
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546, Singapore [2] Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chi-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546, Singapore [2] Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore.
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.identifier: 0000000311803127
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546, Singapore [2] Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore [3] Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: BaoKai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1] Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [2] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Nasser
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alidoust
authors.affiliation: Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.affiliation: 1] Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [2] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [3] Condensed Matter and Magnet Science Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Madhab
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neupane
authors.affiliation: ICQM, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Chenglong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] ICQM, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China [2] Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Arun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bansil
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, 6 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117546, Singapore [2] Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hsin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: 1] Joseph Henry Laboratory, Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [2] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA [3] Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: M Zahid
authors.identifier: 0000000197303128
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Hasan