Electronic Interactions and Transport in Weyl Semimetals

The viscous electron phase of graphene is a well-known phenomenon which occurs at the charge neutrality point due to the dominance of electron-electron scattering processes. Recent experiments have shown evidence of an analogous state of electron viscosity in tungsten phosphide (WP2), a known Weyl semimetal (WSM). WSMs are materials where electrons effectively interact as massless relativistic particles (Weyl fermions) and in 3-dimensions the conduction and valence bands touch at isolated points. Hydrodynamics in such systems has typically been studied via kinetic theory. This talk will show ab initio linked hydrodynamic simulations of electron flow in WP2 with a focus on the role of electron-phonon interactions and the suppression of momentum non-conserving processes in the hydrodynamic phase of WP2.