Negative longitudinal magnetoconductance at weak fields in Weyl semimetals

Abstract

Weyl semimetals are topological materials that provide a condensed-matter realization of the chiral anomaly. A positive longitudinal magnetoconductance quadratic in magnetic field has been promoted as a diagnostic for this anomaly. By solving the Boltzmann equation analytically, we show that the magnetoconductance can become negative in the experimentally relevant semiclassical regime of weak magnetic fields. This effect is due to the simultaneous presence of the Berry phase and the orbital magnetic moment of carriers and occurs for sufficiently strong intervalley scattering.