Mixed Axial-Torsional Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals

We show that Weyl semimetals exhibit a mixed axial-torsional anomaly in the presence of axial torsion, a concept exclusive of these materials with no known natural fundamental interpretation in terms of the geometry of spacetime. This anomaly implies a nonconservation of the axial current-the difference in the current of left- and right-handed chiral fermions-when the torsion of the spacetime in which the Weyl fermions move couples with opposite sign to different chiralities. The anomaly is activated by driving transverse sound waves through a Weyl semimetal with a spatially varying tilted dispersion, which can be engineered by applying strain. This leads to a sizable alternating current in the presence of a magnetic field that provides a clear-cut experimental signature of our predictions.