Quantum Electron Quasicrystal

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a quantum electronic quasicrystal in bilayer Wigner crystals, stabilized by quantum fluctuations, revealing a new route to moiré physics driven by many-body effects.

Contribution

It develops an analytical framework showing how quantum fluctuations stabilize a quasicrystalline phase in electron gases, complementing neural-network Monte Carlo findings.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations destabilize classical honeycomb states.

Zero-point motion stabilizes the electronic quasicrystal.

The quasicrystal emerges over a broad parameter range.

Abstract

The strongly correlated phases of the homogeneous electron gas constitute the vocabulary of many-body condensed matter physics and find a natural realization in semiconductors. In this setting, recent neural-network variational Monte Carlo calculations discovered an unexpected quantum phase of matter in wide quantum wells: an electronic quasicrystal formed by a bilayer Wigner crystals with a 30-degrees twist. This state defies classical expectations and emerges in a regime dominated by quantum fluctuations. Here, we develop an analytical framework to reveal its origin. By computing zero-point energy corrections to bilayer Wigner crystal configurations, we show that quantum fluctuations qualitatively reshape the energetic landscape, destabilizing the classical honeycomb state and selecting the 30-degrees quasicrystalline ground state over a broad parameter range. Our results identify zero-point motion as the mechanism stabilizing the electronic quasicrystal and establish a route to spontaneous moir\'e physics driven by many-body quantum effects.