Standard model of electromagnetism and chirality in crystals

We present a general, systematic theory of electromagnetism and chirality in crystalline solids. Symmetry is its fundamental guiding principle. We use the formal similarity between space inversion i and time inversion θ to identify two complementary, comprehensive classification of crystals, based on five categories of electric and magnetic multipole order -- called polarizations -- and five categories of chirality. The five categories of polarizations (parapolar, electropolar, magnetopolar, antimagnetopolar, and multipolar) expand the familiar notion of electric dipolarization in ferroelectrics and magnetization in ferromagnets to higher-order multipole densities. The five categories of chirality (parachiral, electrochiral, magnetochiral, antimagnetochiral, and multichiral) expand the familiar notion of enantiomorphism due to non-superposable mirror images to the inversion symmetries i, θ, and iθ. In multichiral systems, all these inversion symmetries are absent so that these systems have four distinct enantiomorphs. Each category of chirality arises from distinct superpositions of electric and magnetic multipole densities. We provide a complete theory of minimal effective models characterizing the different categories of chirality in different systems. Jointly these two schemes yield a classification of all 122 magnetic crystallographic point groups into 15 types that treat the inversion symmetries i, θ, and iθ on the same footing. The group types are characterized via distinct physical properties and characteristic features in the electronic band structure. At the same time, the formal similarities between the inversion symmetries i, θ, and iθ imply striking correspondences between apparently dissimilar systems and their physical properties.