English

Physical Pictures for Quasisymmetry in Crystals

Materials Science 2026-02-23 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

Quasisymmetry (QS) provides a novel route to understand and control near-degeneracies, Berry curvature, optical selection rules, and symmetry-protected phenomena in quantum materials. Here we give physical interpretations of the emergence of QS operators across multiple material families. Using density functional theory and the kp\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p} formalism, we identify QS subspaces and calculate their representation matrices, quantifying the quasisymmetry via a metric ϵ\epsilon that measures subspace invariance. For Sn/SiC and transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers, QS corresponds to an emergent mirror symmetry, whereas in wurtzite crystals it manifests as an emergent spatial inversion. By contrast, for AgLa the QS appearing in avoided crossings is inherited from a nearby high-symmetry point rather than being an emergent lattice symmetry. Combining group-theoretical analysis and kp\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p} modeling, our results establish concrete physical pictures for QS and provide practical criteria to diagnose it in first-principles calculations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.18132,
  title  = {Physical Pictures for Quasisymmetry in Crystals},
  author = {Bryan D. Assunção and Emmanuel V. C. Lopes and Tome M. Schmidt and Gerson J. Ferreira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.18132},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 7 figures