Energy Spectrum Theory of Incommensurate Systems

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive energy spectrum theory for incommensurate systems, overcoming the challenge posed by the lack of translational symmetry, and demonstrates its application to various complex structures.

Contribution

It generalizes the energy band theory to incommensurate systems without relying on commensurate approximations, providing a new fundamental framework.

Findings

Successfully applied to 1D bichromatic and trichromatic models

Extended to moiré quasicrystals

Offers a formal similarity to Bloch electron theory

Abstract

Due to the lack of the translational symmetry, calculating the energy spectrum of an incommensurate system has always been a theoretical challenge. Here, we propose a natural approach to generalize the energy band theory to the incommensurate systems without reliance on the commensurate approximation, thus providing a comprehensive energy spectrum theory of the incommensurate systems. Except for a truncation dependent weighting factor, the formulae of this theory are formally almost identical to that of the Bloch electrons, making it particularly suitable for complex incommensurate structures. To illustrate the application of this theory, we give three typical examples: one-dimensional bichromatic and trichromatic incommensurate potential model, as well as a moir\'{e} quasicrystal. Our theory establishes a fundamental framework for understanding the incommensurate systems.