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Title: Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram

Abstract

Here, we derive the exact insulator ground states of the projected Hamiltonian of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) flat bands with Coulomb interactions in various limits, and study the perturbations away from these limits. We define the (first) chiral limit where the AA stacking hopping is zero, and a flat limit with exactly flat bands. In the chiral-flat limit, the TBG Hamiltonian has a U(4) × U(4) symmetry, and we find that the exact ground states at integer filling – 4 ≤ $$\textit{ν}$$ ≤ 4 relative to charge neutrality are Chern insulators of Chern numbers $$ν_C$$ = 4 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |, 2 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |, $$\cdots$$, |$$\textit{ν}$$ | – 4, all of which are degenerate. This confirms recent experiments where Chern insulators are found to be competitive low-energy states of TBG. When the chiral-flat limit is reduced to the nonchiral-flat limit which has a U(4) symmetry, we find $$\textit{ν}$$ = 0 , ± 2 has exact ground states of Chern number 0, while $$\textit{ν}$$ = ±1, ± 3 has perturbative ground states of Chern number $$ν_C$$ = ± 1, which are U(4) ferromagnetic. In the chiral-nonflat limit with a different U(4) symmetry, different Chern number states are degenerate up to second-order perturbations. In the realistic nonchiral-nonflat case, we find that the perturbative insulator states with Chern number $$ν_C$$ = 0 (0 < |$$ν_C$$| < 4 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |) at integer fillings $$\textit{ν}$$ are fully (partially) intervalley coherent, while the insulator states with Chern number |$$ν_C$$| = 4 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ | are valley polarized. However, for 0 < |$$ν_C$$| ≤ 4 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |, the fully intervalley coherent states are highly competitive (0.005 meV/electron higher). At nonzero magnetic field |$$\textit{B}$$ | > 0, a first-order phase transition for $$\textit{ν}$$ = ± 1, ± 2 from Chern number $$ν_C$$ = sgn ($$\textit{νB}$$)(2 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |) to $$ν_C$$ = sgn ($$\textit{νB}$$)(4 – |$$\textit{ν}$$ |) is expected, which agrees with recent experimental observations. Lastly, the TBG Hamiltonian reduces into an extended Hubbard model in the stabilizer code limit.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole normale supérieure (LPENS), Paris (France); École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris (France); Université PSL, Paris (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France); Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France); University Paris-Diderot (France); Paris Cité, Paris (France)
  3. Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) (Spain)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
Schmidt Fund for Innovative Research; Packard Foundation; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) ; Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of Spain (MINECO); Fundació Privada Cellex; Fundació Privada Mir-Puig; Generalitat de Catalunya; European Research Council (ERC); La Caixa Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1849769
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-07ER46419; SC0016239; 404513; GBMF8685; DMR 1643312; DMR-1420541; DMR-2011750; N00014-20-1-2303; 2018226; SE5-0522; 852927; GBMF9469; NSF-DMR-1420541; NSF-DMR-1904442
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review. B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 103; Journal Issue: 20; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Materials Science; Physics

Citation Formats

Lian, Biao, Song, Zhi-Da, Regnault, Nicolas, Efetov, Dmitri K., Yazdani, Ali, and Bernevig, B. Andrei. Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevb.103.205414.
Lian, Biao, Song, Zhi-Da, Regnault, Nicolas, Efetov, Dmitri K., Yazdani, Ali, & Bernevig, B. Andrei. Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.103.205414
Lian, Biao, Song, Zhi-Da, Regnault, Nicolas, Efetov, Dmitri K., Yazdani, Ali, and Bernevig, B. Andrei. Tue . "Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.103.205414. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1849769.
@article{osti_1849769,
title = {Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram},
author = {Lian, Biao and Song, Zhi-Da and Regnault, Nicolas and Efetov, Dmitri K. and Yazdani, Ali and Bernevig, B. Andrei},
abstractNote = {Here, we derive the exact insulator ground states of the projected Hamiltonian of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) flat bands with Coulomb interactions in various limits, and study the perturbations away from these limits. We define the (first) chiral limit where the AA stacking hopping is zero, and a flat limit with exactly flat bands. In the chiral-flat limit, the TBG Hamiltonian has a U(4) × U(4) symmetry, and we find that the exact ground states at integer filling – 4 ≤ $\textit{ν}$ ≤ 4 relative to charge neutrality are Chern insulators of Chern numbers $ν_C$ = 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, 2 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, $\cdots$, |$\textit{ν}$ | – 4, all of which are degenerate. This confirms recent experiments where Chern insulators are found to be competitive low-energy states of TBG. When the chiral-flat limit is reduced to the nonchiral-flat limit which has a U(4) symmetry, we find $\textit{ν}$ = 0 , ± 2 has exact ground states of Chern number 0, while $\textit{ν}$ = ±1, ± 3 has perturbative ground states of Chern number $ν_C$ = ± 1, which are U(4) ferromagnetic. In the chiral-nonflat limit with a different U(4) symmetry, different Chern number states are degenerate up to second-order perturbations. In the realistic nonchiral-nonflat case, we find that the perturbative insulator states with Chern number $ν_C$ = 0 (0 < |$ν_C$| < 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) at integer fillings $\textit{ν}$ are fully (partially) intervalley coherent, while the insulator states with Chern number |$ν_C$| = 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ | are valley polarized. However, for 0 < |$ν_C$| ≤ 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, the fully intervalley coherent states are highly competitive (0.005 meV/electron higher). At nonzero magnetic field |$\textit{B}$ | > 0, a first-order phase transition for $\textit{ν}$ = ± 1, ± 2 from Chern number $ν_C$ = sgn ($\textit{νB}$)(2 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) to $ν_C$ = sgn ($\textit{νB}$)(4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) is expected, which agrees with recent experimental observations. Lastly, the TBG Hamiltonian reduces into an extended Hubbard model in the stabilizer code limit.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevb.103.205414},
journal = {Physical Review. B},
number = 20,
volume = 103,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Tue May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

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