Berry phase and anomalous velocity of Weyl fermions and Maxwell photons

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Abstract

We consider two systems of wave equations whose wave packet solutions have trajectories that are altered by the "anomalous velocity" effect of a Berry curvature. The first is the matrix Weyl equation describing cyclotron motion of a charged massless fermion. The second is Maxwell equations for the whispering-gallery modes of light in a cylindrical waveguide. In the case of the massless fermion, the anomalous velocity is obscured by the contribution from the magnetic moment. In the whispering-gallery modes, the anomalous velocity causes the circumferential light ray to creep up the cylinder at the rate of one wavelength per orbit, and can be identified as a continuous version of the Imbert-Federov effect.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1550249
JournalInternational Journal of Modern Physics B
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 20 2016

Keywords

  • Anomalous velocity
  • Berry phase
  • Imbert-Federov effect

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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