Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2020
Abstract
Breakthroughs in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures have revealed that twisting creates a moiré pattern that quenches the kinetic energy of electrons, allowing for exotic many-body states. We show that cold atomic, trapped ion, and metamaterial systems can emulate the effects of a twist in many models from one to three dimensions. Further, we demonstrate at larger angles (and argue at smaller angles) that by considering incommensurate effects, the magic-angle effect becomes a single-particle quantum phase transition (including in a model for twisted bilayer graphene in the chiral limit). We call these models “magic-angle semimetals”. Each contains nodes in the band structure and an incommensurate modulation. At magic-angle criticality, we report a nonanalytic density of states, flat bands, multifractal wave functions that Anderson delocalize in momentum space, and an essentially divergent effective interaction scale. As a particular example, we discuss how to observe this effect in an ultracold Fermi gas.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
npj Quantum Materials
Recommended Citation
Fu, Y., König, E., Wilson, J., Chou, Y., & Pixley, J. (2020). Magic-angle semimetals. npj Quantum Materials, 5 (1) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-00271-9
