The ideal limit of rhombohedral graphene: Interaction-induced layer-skyrmion lattices and their collective excitations

TL;DR

This paper introduces an idealized model of rhombohedral graphene where short-range interactions stabilize a layer-pseudospin skyrmion lattice, leading to interaction-driven topological bands and collective excitations.

Contribution

It analytically demonstrates how short-range repulsion stabilizes a skyrmion lattice in rhombohedral graphene, revealing a real-space origin of interaction-driven topology.

Findings

Stabilization of a layer-pseudospin skyrmion lattice by short-range interactions.

Emergence of a Chern band from the skyrmion lattice.

Description of collective excitations within skyrmion-lattice dynamics.

Abstract

We introduce an ideal limit of rhombohedral graphene multilayers. In this limit, we show analytically how short-range repulsion stabilizes a layer-pseudospin skyrmion lattice, which generates an effective magnetic field and gives rise to a Chern band. This establishes the real-space origin of interaction-driven topology in moir\'e rhombohedral graphene. The resulting interaction-induced skyrmion lattice is physically analogous to magnetic skyrmion crystals and hosts a hierarchy of collective excitations naturally described within the framework of skyrmion-lattice dynamics.