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Abstract

We thank G.P. Mikitik and Yu.V. Sharlai for contributing this note¹ and the cordial exchange about it. First and foremost, we note that the aim of our paper² is to report a methodology to diagnose topological (semi)metals using magnetic quantum oscillations. Thus far, such diagnosis has been based on the phase offset of quantum oscillations, which is extracted from a “Landau fan plot”. A thorough analysis of the Onsager–Lifshitz–Roth quantization rules has shown that the famous π-phase shift can equally well arise from orbital or spin magnetic moments in topologically trivial systems with strong spin-orbit coupling or small effective masses³. Therefore, the “Landau fan plot” does not by itself constitute a proof of a topologically nontrivial Fermi surface. In the paper at hand², we report an improved analysis method that exploits the strong energy dependence of the effective mass in linearly dispersing bands. This leads to a characteristic temperature dependence of the oscillation frequency which is a strong indicator of nontrivial topology, even for multi-band metals with complex Fermi surfaces. Three materials, Cd₃As₂, Bi₂O₂Se and LaRhIn₅ served as test cases for this method. Linear band dispersions were detected for Cd₃As₂, as well as the F ≈ 7 T pocket in LaRhIn₅.