Lowest-energy Moir\'e Band Formed by Dirac Zero Modes in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

TL;DR

This paper identifies a low-energy moiré band formed by Dirac zero modes in twisted bilayer graphene, which becomes flat and strongly correlated at the magic angle, potentially explaining the observed insulating phase.

Contribution

It reveals that interlayer hopping induces a spatially modulated Dirac mass leading to a flat band of Dirac zero modes in twisted bilayer graphene.

Findings

Moiré band becomes flat at the magic angle.

Strong correlations lead to Mott insulating phase.

Explains experimental insulating phase at specific fillings.

Abstract

An unconventional insulating phase and a superconducting phase were recently discovered in the twisted bilayer graphene [Y. Cao et al, Nature {\bf 556}, 80; {\bf 556}, 43 (2018)], but the relevant low-energy electronic states have not been clearly identified yet. In this work, I show that the interlayer hopping induces a spatially modulated Dirac mass term in the continuum Hamiltonian, and leads to a low-energy band formed by Dirac zero modes in the moir\'e superlattice. This moir\'e band becomes extremely flat and thus strongly correlated as the Dirac velocity vanishes at the magic angle, and enters a quantum disordered Mott insulating phase at $1/4$ and $3/4$ filling, i.e., $\pm 2$ excess electrons per moir\'e supercell, which may account for the insulating phase discovered in experiments.