arXiv subjects

Patrick Ledwith

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Ledwith.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Trion Excitations in Twisted Bilayer Graphene: A Quantum Monte Carlo Study

Determining the nature of charge carriers is a fundamental goal in the study of strongly correlated electron systems. Here, we employ the continuous-field momentum-space quantum Monte Carlo method to reveal exotic "Dirac trion" excitations in the finite-temperature normal state of twisted bilayer graphene. While the ground state is a symmetry-breaking insulator with gapped ($\sim$ 20 meV) electron-like excitations, we show that a small temperature ($\sim$ 3 meV), well below the interaction scale, drives the system into a strongly fluctuating symmetric normal state. We demonstrate that this normal state hosts gapless excitations consisting of three-particle bound states, two electrons and one hole, that are exactly orthogonal to the higher-energy electrons at the zero-momentum gapless point. These Dirac trions have the remarkable property of being arbitrarily light despite being composed of heavy constituents, and their spectra can be easily tuned by varying the twist angle and interlayer hopping strength. Our unbiased quantum many-body computation sheds light on the Dirac trions in a projected correlated flat-band setting and opens the door for further investigation of many-body excitations in strongly correlated topological bands beyond Landau levels.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Monte Carlo Studies of Twisted Bilayer Graphene: Strain and Thermal Fluctuations

We study the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene at charge neutrality as a function of twist angle $\theta$, uniaxial heterostrain $\varepsilon$, and temperature $T$ using sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations. At $T=0$ and zero strain, we find a continuous transition from a Dirac semimetal to a gapped Kramers inter-valley coherent (KIVC) phase as $\theta$ decreases toward the magic angle. With finite strain, the KIVC phase undergoes a further continuous transition at smaller $\theta$ into an anisotropic semimetal with gapless excitations near the center of the moir\'{e} Brillouin zone. In the KIVC regime, the entropy rises sharply with temperature and plateaus at $15\,\text{K} \lesssim T \lesssim 40\,\text{K}$ near the value expected from a Mott-like regime of localized electrons with nearly uncorrelated spin, valley, and orbital degrees of freedom, despite the topological obstruction preventing a localized tight-binding description of the active bands. The spectral function evolves continuously with $\theta$: at low $T$, a gap opens at the $K$ points and the minimal gap shifts to $\Gamma$ as $\theta$ decreases; at intermediate $T$, the spectral function smoothly interpolates between a Dirac semimetal spectrum with coherent $K$-point quasiparticles and a spectrum with gapless $\Gamma$-centered quasiparticles near the magic angle. The later can be a anisotropic or a Mott semimetal and we discuss how to distiguish them in experiment.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Controlled expansion for correlated electrons with concentrated kinematics

We introduce a systematic expansion tailored to systems with strong local interactions and capable of computing response functions, including finite DC transport, analytically. The expansion is controlled by a small parameter $s^2$ that measures the area of the momentum space region where kinematics of the theory is concentrated. In real space, this corresponds to single-particle or correlated hopping terms with amplitudes that decay over a length scale $1/s$ and scale in magnitude as $s^2$ in two dimensions. In the limit $s^2\ll 1$, long, self-avoiding tunneling paths dominate over paths revisiting the same site. This enables systematic controlled calculations of various physical quantities. We illustrate the method with three applications. (i) A Hubbard model with concentrated dispersion: we analytically obtain spectral broadening which scales as $s^2$ and identify a high-temperature bad metal with $T$-linear resistivity coexisting with parametrically long-lived quasiparticles, as well as an intermediate-temperature "thermal FL*" with a small hole pocket that coexists with thermally disordered fluctuating local moments, all within a single controlled framework. (ii) A correlated-hopping model with interesting electron-trion dynamics. (iii) A model of Chern bands with concentrated Berry curvature, motivated by twisted bilayer graphene, which realizes a Mott semimetal where we compute the broadening for the electron and trion spectral functions. At the end, we discuss how our approach paves the way to addressing various challenging questions in strongly correlated systems and outline its various generalizations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Four Moir\'e materials at One Magic Angle in Helical Quadrilayer Graphene

We introduce helical twisted quadrilayer graphene (HTQG), four graphene sheets rotated by the same small angle, as a versatile and experimentally accessible platform for correlated topological matter. HTQG consists of three moir\'e lattices, formed by interference between adjacent graphene layers, that are twisted relative to each other. Lattice relaxation produces four types of large-scale commensurate domains. The domains are characterized by the stacking of the three moir\'e lattices and come in two types: Type-I "Bernal" stacking and Type-II "rhombohedral" stacking. Domain walls between adjacent stackings often host topologically protected edge states, forming networks at the supermoir\'e and super-supermoir\'e scales. Remarkably, all four moir\'e substructures have narrow bands at the same magic angle $\theta \approx 2.3^\circ$, allowing their correlated phases to be simultaneously targeted in device manufacturing. We argue that the Type-I domains are especially suitable for realizing robust superconductivity which emerges from doping topological insulators, and Chern insulators in $C = \pm 2$ bands.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Bootstrapping the Quantum Hall problem

The bootstrap method aims to solve problems by imposing constraints on the space of physical observables, which often follow from physical assumptions such as positivity and symmetry. Here, we employ a bootstrap approach to study interacting electrons in the lowest Landau level by minimizing the energy as a function of the static structure factor subject to a set of constraints, bypassing the need to construct the full many-body wavefunction. This approach rigorously lower bounds the ground state energy, making it complementary to conventional variational upper bounds. We show that the lower bound we obtain is relatively tight, within at most 5\% from the ground state energy computed with exact diagonalization (ED) at small system sizes, and generally gets tighter as we include more constraints. In addition to energetics, our results reproduce the correct power law dependence of the pair correlation function at short distances and the existence of a large entanglement gap in the two-particle entanglement spectra for the Laughlin states at $\nu = 1/3$. We further identify signatures of the composite Fermi liquid state close to half-filling. This shows that the bootstrap approach is capable, in principle, of describing non-trivial gapped topologically ordered, as well as gapless, phases. At the end, we will discuss possible extensions and limitations of this approach. Our work establishes numerical bootstrap as a promising method to study many-body phases in topological bands, paving the way to its application in moir\'e platforms where the energetic competition between fractional quantum anomalous Hall, symmetry broken, and gapless states remains poorly understood.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Imaging Coulomb interactions and migrating Dirac cones in twisted graphene by local quantum oscillations

Flat band moir\'e graphene systems have emerged as a quintessential platform to investigate correlated phases of matter. A plethora of interaction-driven ground states have been proposed, and yet despite extensive experimental effort, there has been little direct evidence that distinguishes between the various phases, in particular near charge neutrality point. Here, we use a nanoscale scanning superconducting quantum interference device to image the local thermodynamic quantum oscillations in alternating-twist trilayer graphene at magnetic fields as low as 56 mT, which reveal ultrafine details of the density of states and of the renormalization of the single-particle band structure by Coulomb interactions. We find that the charging self-energy due to occupied electronic states, is critical in explaining the high carrier density physics. At half-filling of the conduction flat band, we observe a Stoner-like symmetry breaking, suggesting that it is the most robust mechanism in the hierarchy of phase transitions. On approaching charge neutrality, where the charging energy is negligible and exchange energy is dominant, we find the ground state to be a nematic semimetal which is favored over gapped states in the presence of heterostrain. In the revealed semimetallic phase, the flat-band Dirac cones migrate towards the mini-Brillouin zone center, spontaneously breaking the C_3 rotational symmetry. Our low-field local quantum oscillations technique presents an alluring avenue to explore the ground states of diverse strongly interacting van der Waals systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Superfluid stiffness of twisted multilayer graphene superconductors

The robustness of the macroscopic quantum nature of a superconductor can be characterized by the superfluid stiffness, $\rho_s$, a quantity that describes the energy required to vary the phase of the macroscopic quantum wave function. In unconventional superconductors, such as cuprates, the low-temperature behavior of $\rho_s$ drastically differs from that of conventional superconductors due to quasiparticle excitations from gapless points (nodes) in momentum space. Intensive research on the recently discovered magic-angle twisted graphene family has revealed, in addition to superconducting states, strongly correlated electronic states associated with spontaneously broken symmetries, inviting the study of $\rho_s$ to uncover the potentially unconventional nature of its superconductivity. Here we report the measurement of $\rho_s$ in magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene (TTG), revealing unconventional nodal-gap superconductivity. Utilizing radio-frequency reflectometry techniques to measure the kinetic inductive response of superconducting TTG coupled to a microwave resonator, we find a linear temperature dependence of $\rho_s$ at low temperatures and nonlinear Meissner effects in the current bias dependence, both indicating nodal structures in the superconducting order parameter. Furthermore, the doping dependence shows a linear correlation between the zero temperature $\rho_s$ and the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$, reminiscent of Uemura's relation in cuprates, suggesting phase-coherence-limited superconductivity. Our results provide strong evidence for nodal superconductivity in TTG and put strong constraints on the mechanisms of these graphene-based superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Strong interactions and isospin symmetry breaking in a supermoir\'e lattice

In multilayer moir\'e heterostructures, the interference of multiple twist angles ubiquitously leads to tunable ultra-long-wavelength patterns known as supermoir\'e lattices. However, their impact on the system's many-body electronic phase diagram remains largely unexplored. We present local compressibility measurements revealing numerous incompressible states resulting from supermoir\'e-lattice-scale isospin symmetry breaking driven by strong interactions. By using the supermoir\'e lattice occupancy as a probe of isospin symmetry, we observe an unexpected doubling of the miniband filling near $\nu=-2$, possibly indicating a hidden phase transition or normal-state pairing proximal to the superconducting phase. Our work establishes supermoir\'e lattices as a tunable parameter for designing novel quantum phases and an effective tool for unraveling correlated phenomena in moir\'e materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Higher vortexability: zero field realization of higher Landau levels

The rise of moir\'{e} materials has led to experimental realizations of integer and fractional Chern insulators in small or vanishing magnetic fields. At the same time, a set of minimal conditions sufficient to guarantee a Abelian fractional state in a flat band were identified, namely "ideal" or "vortexable" quantum geometry. Such vortexable bands share essential features with the lowest Landau level, while excluding the need for more fine-tuned aspects such as flat Berry curvature. A natural and important generalization is to ask if such conditions can be extended to capture the quantum geometry of higher Landau levels, particularly the first (1LL), where non-Abelian states at $\nu = 1/2,2/5$ are known to be competitive. The possibility of realizing these states at zero magnetic field , and perhaps even more exotic ones, could become a reality if we could identify the essential structure of the 1LL in Chern bands. In this work, we introduce a precise definition of 1LL quantum geometry, along with a figure of merit that measures how closely a given band approaches the 1LL. We apply the definition to identify two models with 1LL structure -- a toy model of double bilayer twisted graphene and a more realistic model of strained Bernal graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Untwisting moir\'e physics: Almost ideal bands and fractional Chern insulators in periodically strained monolayer graphene

Moir\'e systems have emerged in recent years as a rich platform to study strong correlations. Here, we will discuss a simple, experimentally feasible setup based on periodically strained graphene that reproduces several key aspects of twisted moir\'e heterostructures -- but without introducing a twist. We consider a monolayer graphene sheet subject to a $C_2$-breaking periodic strain-induced psuedomagnetic field (PMF) with period $L_M \gg a$, along with a scalar potential of the same period. This system has {\it almost ideal} flat bands with valley-resolved Chern number $\pm 1$, where the deviation from ideal band geometry is analytically controlled and exponentially small in the dimensionless ratio $(L_M/l_B)^2$ where $l_B$ is the magnetic length corresponding to the maximum value of the PMF. Moreover, the scalar potential can tune the bandwidth far below the Coulomb scale, making this a very promising platform for strongly interacting topological phases. Using a combination of strong-coupling theory and self-consistent Hartree fock, we find quantum anomalous Hall states at integer fillings. At fractional filling, exact diagonaliztion reveals a fractional Chern insulator at parameters in the experimentally feasible range. Overall, we find that this system has larger interaction-induced gaps, smaller quasiparticle dispersion, and enhanced tunability compared to twisted graphene systems, even in their ideal limit.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Field-tuned and zero-field fractional Chern insulators in magic angle graphene

In contrast to the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect, where electron density fixes the applied magnetic field, fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) can realize FQH states in comparatively weak or even zero magnetic fields. Previous theoretical work highlighted magic angle graphene as a promising FCI platform, satisfying the twin requirements of flat bands and lowest-Landau-level-like quantum geometry. Indeed, recent experiments have demonstrated FCIs in magic angle graphene with weak magnetic fields. Here we conduct a detailed theoretical study of the most prominent FCI state observed, and clarify the role of the magnetic field in stabilizing this state. We introduce two new technical tools: first, we generalize the notion of ideal quantum geometry to Hofstadter minibands and, second, we extend the Hartree-Fock theory of magic-angle graphene to finite field, to account for the interaction generated bandwidth. We show that magnetic field both dramatically reduces the effective bandwidth and improves the quantum geometry for hosting FCIs. Using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations of a microscopic model of magic angle graphene, we establish the regime of bandwidth and quantum geometry indicators where FCIs are stabilized. Further characterizing the finite-field bands by the same quantities we show how a zero-field charge density wave state gives way to an FCI state at a magnetic flux consistent with experiment. We also speculate on the other FCIs seen in the same experiments, including anomalous incompressible states and even-denominator fractions which may host non-Abelian states. Finally, when bandwidth is the limiting factor, we propose a range of experimental parameters where FCIs should appear at zero magnetic field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Fractional Chern insulators in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene

Fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) are lattice analogues of fractional quantum Hall states that may provide a new avenue toward manipulating non-abelian excitations. Early theoretical studies have predicted their existence in systems with energetically flat Chern bands and highlighted the critical role of a particular quantum band geometry. Thus far, however, FCI states have only been observed in Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (BLG/hBN), in which a very large magnetic field is responsible for the existence of the Chern bands, precluding the realization of FCIs at zero field and limiting its potential for applications. By contrast, magic angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) supports flat Chern bands at zero magnetic field, and therefore offers a promising route toward stabilizing zero-field FCIs. Here we report the observation of eight FCI states at low magnetic field in MATBG enabled by high-resolution local compressibility measurements. The first of these states emerge at 5 T, and their appearance is accompanied by the simultaneous disappearance of nearby topologically-trivial charge density wave states. Unlike the BLG/hBN platform, we demonstrate that the principal role of the weak magnetic field here is merely to redistribute the Berry curvature of the native Chern bands and thereby realize a quantum band geometry favorable for the emergence of FCIs. Our findings strongly suggest that FCIs may be realized at zero magnetic field and pave the way for the exploration and manipulation of anyonic excitations in moir\'e systems with native flat Chern bands.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Topological charge density waves at half-integer filling of a moir\'e superlattice

At partial filling of a flat band, strong electronic interactions may favor gapped states harboring emergent topology with quantized Hall conductivity. Emergent topological states have been found in partially filled Landau levels and Hofstadter bands; in both cases, a large magnetic field is required to engineer the underlying flat band. The recent observation of quantum anomalous Hall effects (QAH) in narrow band moir\'e systems has led to the theoretical prediction that such phases may be realized even at zero magnetic field. Here we report the experimental observation of insulators with Chern number $C=1$ in the zero magnetic field limit at $\nu=3/2$ and $7/2$ filling of the moir\'e superlattice unit cell in twisted monolayer-bilayer graphene (tMBG). Our observation of Chern insulators at half-integer values of $\nu$ suggests spontaneous doubling of the superlattice unit cell, in addition to spin- and valley-ferromagnetism. This is confirmed by Hartree-Fock calculations, which find a topological charge density wave ground state at half filling of the underlying $C=2$ band, in which the Berry curvature is evenly partitioned between occupied and unoccupied states. We find the translation symmetry breaking order parameter is evenly distributed across the entire folded superlattice Brillouin zone, suggesting that the system is in the flat band, strongly correlated limit. Our findings show that the interplay of quantum geometry and Coulomb interactions in moir\'e bands allows for topological phases at fractional superlattice filling that spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, a prerequisite in pursuit of zero magnetic field phases harboring fractional statistics as elementary excitations or bound to lattice dislocations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Symmetry constraints on superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene: Fractional vortices, $4e$ condensates or non-unitary pairing

When two graphene sheets are twisted relative to each other by a small angle, enhanced correlations lead to superconductivity whose origin remains under debate. Here, we derive some general constraints on superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), independent of its underlying mechanism. Neglecting weak coupling between valleys, the global symmetry group of TBG consists of independent spin rotations in each valley in addition to valley charge rotations, $ {\rm SU}(2) \times {\rm SU}(2) \times {\rm U}_V(1) $. This symmetry is further enhanced to a full ${\rm SU}(4)$ in the idealized chiral limit. In both cases, we show that any charge $2e$ pairing must break the global symmetry. Additionally, if the pairing is unitary the resulting superconductor admits fractional vortices. This leads to the following general statement: Any superconducting condensate in either symmetry class has to satisfy one of three possibilities: (i) the superconducting pairing is non-unitary, (ii) the superconducting condensate has charge $2e$ but admits at least half quantum vortices which carry a flux of $h/4e$, or (iii) the superconducting condensate has charge $2me$, $m>1$, with vortices carrying $h/2me$ flux. The latter possibility can be realized by a symmetric charge $4e$ superconductor ($m=2$). Non-unitary pairing (i) is expected in TBG for superconductors observed in the vicinity of flavor polarized states. On the other hand, in the absence of flavor polarization, e.g. in the vicinity of charge neutrality, one of the two exotic possibilities (ii) and (iii) is expected. We sketch how all three scenarios can be realized in different limits within a strong coupling theory of superconductivity based on skyrmions. Finally we discuss the effect of symmetry lowering anisotropies and experimental implications of these scenarios.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Electric field tunable unconventional superconductivity in alternating twist magic-angle trilayer graphene

We construct a van der Waals heterostructure consisting of three graphene layers stacked with alternating twisting angles $\pm\theta$. At the average twist angle $\theta\sim 1.56^{\circ}$, a theoretically predicted magic angle for the formation of flat electron bands, narrow conduction and valence moir\'e bands appear together with a linearly dispersing Dirac band. Upon doping the half-filled moir\'e valence band with holes, or the half-filled moir\'e conduction band with electrons, displacement field tunable superconductivity emerges, reaching a maximum critical temperature of 2.1 K at optimal doping and displacement field. By tuning the doping level and displacement fields, we find that superconducting regimes occur in conjunction with flavour polarization of moir\'e bands bounded by a van Hove singularity (vHS) at high displacement fields. This experimental observation is found to be inconsistent with a weak coupling description, suggesting that the observed moir\'e superconductivity has an unconventional nature.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Lattice Analysis of $SU(2)$ with 1 Adjoint Dirac Flavor

Recently $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory with one massless adjoint Dirac quark flavor emerges as a novel critical theory that can describe the evolution between a trivial insulator and a topological insulator in AIII class in $3+1$ dimensions. There are several classes of conjectured infrared dynamics for this theory. One possibility is that the theory undergoes spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, with two massless Goldstone bosons (the scalar diquark and its antiparticle) in the infrared. Another scenario, which is suggested by previous lattice studies by Athenodorou et al., is that the IR sector of the theory is a strongly interacting conformal field theory as the quark mass vanishes. The most recent theoretical proposals argue for a case that in the infrared a composite fermion composed of two quarks and an antiquark becomes massless and non-interacting as the quark mass goes to zero, while other sectors are decoupled from this low-energy fermion. This work expands upon previous studies by including the composite fermion to investigate which of these three potential scenarios captures the infrared behavior of this theory.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2017

Angular Superdiffusion and Directional Memory in Two-Dimensional Electron Fluids

We demonstrate that 2D Fermi liquids can support peculiar excitations that are not subject to Landau's $T^2$ dissipation. The long-lived excitations relax through correlated angular dynamics involving "lock-step" angular displacements along the Fermi surface occurring in collinear two-particle collisions, a surprising behavior that is unique to 2D systems. We develop a microscopic picture of the non-Brownian random walk, describing the angular dynamics as anomalous diffusion ("superdiffusion") on the Fermi surface. Strongly-correlated dynamics with directional memory, mediated by novel undamped excitations, dominates at moderately long times, pushing the onset of conventional hydrodynamics to abnormally large timescales. This exotic behavior can be directly probed by momentum-resolved tunneling techniques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗