English

Incommensurate Twisted Bilayer Graphene: emerging quasi-periodicity and stability

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-03-31 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We consider a lattice model of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) for incommensurate twist angles, focusing on the role of large-momentum-transfer Umklapp terms. These terms, which nearly connect the Fermi points of different layers, are typically neglected in effective continuum descriptions but could, in principle, destroy the Dirac cones; they are indeed closely analogous to those appearing in fermions within quasi-periodic potentials, where they play a crucial role. We prove that, for small but finite interlayer coupling, the semimetallic phase is stable provided the angles belong to a fractal set of large measure (which decreases with the hopping strength) characterized by a number-theoretic Diophantine condition. In particular, this set excludes the (zero measure) commensurate angles. Our method combines a Renormalization Group (RG) analysis of the imaginary-time, zero-temperature Green's functions, with number theoretic properties, and it is similar to the technique used in the Lindstedt series approach to Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theory. The convergence of the resulting series allows us to rule out non-perturbative effects. The result provides a partial justification of the effective continuum description of TBG in which such large-momentum interlayer hopping processes are neglected.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.12918,
  title  = {Incommensurate Twisted Bilayer Graphene: emerging quasi-periodicity and stability},
  author = {Ian Jauslin and Vieri Mastropietro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.12918},
  year   = {2026}
}