Dispersion of Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals and their evolutions to Dirac cones

Abstract

We study dispersions of Fermi arcs in the Weyl semimetal phase by constructing a simple effective model. We calculate how the surface Fermi-arc dispersions for the top- and bottom surfaces merge into the bulk Dirac cones in the Weyl semimetal at both ends of the arcs, and show that they have opposite velocities. This result is also confirmed by a calculation using a tight-binding model. Furthermore, by changing a parameter in the system while preserving time-reversal symmetry, we show that two Fermi arcs evolve into a surface Dirac cone when the system transits from the Weyl semimetal to the topological insulator phase. We also demonstrate that choices of surface terminations affect the pairing of Weyl nodes, from which the Fermi arcs are formed.