Mirror symmetry decomposition in double-twisted multilayer graphene systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mirror symmetry decomposition in double-twisted multilayer graphene systems, enabling exact decoupling into subsystems and providing insights into their electronic properties and potential for superconductivity.

Contribution

The work reveals a mirror symmetry decomposition in DTMLG, allowing exact decoupling into subsystems and predicting superconductivity in specific configurations.

Findings

Decoupling of DTMLG into two subsystems with opposite parity.

Explanation of moiré band structure features like flat bands and magic angles.

Prediction of superconductivity in (1+3+1)-DTMLG.

Abstract

Due to the observed superconductivity, the alternating twisted trilayer graphene (ATTLG) has drawn great research interest very recently, in which three monolayer graphene (MLG) are stacked in alternating twist way. If one or several of the MLG in ATTLG are replaced by a multilayer graphene, we get a double twisted multilayer graphene (DTMLG). In this work, we theoretically illustrate that, if the DTMLG has a mirror symmetry along z direction like the ATTLG, there exists a mirror symmetry decomposition (MSD), by which the DTMLG can be exactly decoupled into two subsystems with opposite parity. The two subsystems are either a twisted multilayer graphene (single twist) or a multilayer graphene, depending on the stacking configuration. Such MSD can give a clear interpretation about all the novel features of the moir\'{e} band structures of DTMLG, e.g. the fourfold degenerate flat bands and the enlarged magic angle. Meanwhile, in such DTMLG, the parity becomes a new degree of freedom of the electrons, so that we can define a parity resolved Chern number for the moir\'{e} flat bands. More importantly, the MSD implies that all the novel correlated phases in the twisted multilayer graphene should also exist in the corresponding DTMLGs, since they have the exact same Hamiltonian in form. Specifically, according to the MSD, we predict that the superconductivity should exist in the (1+3+1)-DTMLG.