Quantum oscillations without magnetic field in Dirac and Weyl semimetals

When magnetic field B is applied to a metal, nearly all observable quantities exhibit oscillations periodic in 1/B. Such quantum oscillations reflect the fundamental reorganization of electron states into Landau levels as a canonical response of the metal to the applied magnetic field. We predict here that, remarkably, in the recently discovered Dirac and Weyl semimetals quantum oscillations can occur in the complete absence of magnetic field. These zero-field quantum oscillations are driven by elastic strain which, in the space of the low-energy Dirac fermions, acts as a chiral gauge potential. We propose an experimental setup in which the strain in a thin film (or nanowire) can generate pseudomagnetic field b as large as 15T and numerically demonstrate the resulting de Haas-van Alphen and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations periodic in 1/b.