Emergent geometry, torsion and anomalies in non-relativistic topological matter

Abstract

I review and discuss aspects of the interplay of emergent geometry and anomalies in topological semimetals and insulators, focusing on effects of torsion. This correspondence identifies torsional topological responses in terms of anomalies and anomaly related hydrodynamic phenomena involving gauge fields and geometry. I discuss how torsional emergent geometry arises from elastic deformations in crystalline materials and how this background couples to thee low-energy continuum models inherited from lattice models, utilizing the semiclassical expansion. Via the coupling of momentum space topology and emergent vielbein geometry, non-relativistic topological matter can realise new geometrical responses of mixed gauge-gravitational character. The topological low-energy torsional responses depend momentum space geometry, lattice momenta and the regularization and UV completion, provided by the non-relativistic physics and symmetries of topological materials.