The pseudo-Landau-level representation of twisted bilayer graphene: band topology and the implications on the correlated insulating phase

TL;DR

This paper models twisted bilayer graphene's electronic structure as Dirac fermions in pseudo magnetic fields, revealing topological properties of flat bands and implications for correlated insulating phases.

Contribution

It introduces a pseudo-Landau-level framework for understanding TBG's band topology and its effects on correlated insulating states, providing a comprehensive theoretical picture.

Findings

Flat bands originate from zeroth pseudo Landau levels with opposite Chern numbers.

Small Coulomb interactions can induce insulating phases with non-zero Chern numbers.

High-energy bands also exhibit topologically nontrivial Berry phases.

Abstract

We propose that the electronic structure of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) can be understood as Dirac fermions coupled with opposite pseudo magnetic fields generated by the moir\'e pattern. The two low-energy flat bands from each monolayer valley originate from the two zeroth pseudo Landau levels of Dirac fermions under such opposite effective magnetic fields, which have opposite sublattice polarizations and carry opposite Chern numbers $\pm1$, giving rise to helical edge states in the gaps below and above the low-energy bulk bands near the first magic angle. We argue that small Coulomb interactions would split the eight-fold degeneracy (including valley and physical spin) of these zeroth pseudo Landau levels, and may lead to insulating phases with non-vanishing Chern numbers at integer fillings. Besides, we show that all the high-energy bands below or above the flat bands are also topologically nontrivial in the sense that for each valley the sum of their Berry phases is quantized as $\pm\pi$. Such quantized Berry phases give rise to nearly flat edge states, which are dependent on truncations on the moir\'e length scale. Our work provides a complete and clear picture for the electronic structure and topological properties of TBG, and has significant implications on the natrue of the correlated insulating phase observed in experiments.