Crystalline axion electrodynamics in charge-ordered Dirac semimetals

Abstract

Three-dimensional Dirac semimetals can be driven into an insulating state by coupling to a charge density wave (CDW) order. Here, we consider the quantized crystalline responses of such charge-ordered Dirac semimetals, which we dub Dirac-CDW insulators, in which charge is bound to disclination defects of the lattice. Using analytic and numeric methods we show the following. First, when the CDW is lattice commensurate, disclination-line defects of the lattice have a quantized charge per length. Second, when the CDW is inversion symmetric, disclinations of the lattice have a quantized electric polarization. Third, when the CDW is lattice commensurate and inversion symmetric, disclinations are characterized by a “disclination filling anomaly,” a quantized difference in the total charge bound to disclination lines of Dirac-CDW with open and periodic boundaries. We construct an effective response theory that captures the topological responses of the Dirac-CDW insulators in terms of a total derivative term, denoted the 𝑅∧𝐹 term. The 𝑅∧𝐹 term describes the crystalline analog of the axion electrodynamics that are found in Weyl semimetal-CDW insulators. We also use the crystalline responses and corresponding response theories to classify the strongly correlated topological phases of three-dimensional Dirac semimetals.

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