Electrons in a lattice with an incommensurate potential

Vieri Mastropietro

We consider interacting electrons in a one-dimensional lattice with an incommensurate Aubry-André potential in the regime when the single-particle eigenstates are localized. We rigorously establish the persistence of ground state localization in the presence of weak many-body interaction, for almost all the chemical potentials. The proof uses a quantum many-body extension of methods adopted for the stability of tori of nearly integrable Hamiltonian systems and relies on number-theoretic properties of the potential incommensurate frequency.

Michael Stone

DinhDuy Vu, S. Das Sarma

Inspired by the rich physics of twisted 2D bilayer moiré systems, we study Coulomb interacting systems subjected to two overlapping finite 1D lattice potentials of unequal periods through exact numerical diagonalization. Unmatching underlying lattice periods lead to a 1D bichromatic "moiré" superlattice with a large unit cell and consequently a strongly flattened band, exponentially enhancing the effective dimensionless electron-electron interaction strength and manifesting clear signatures of enhanced Mott gaps at discrete fillings. An important nonperturbative finding is a remarkable fine-tuning effect of the precise lattice commensuration, where slight variations in the relative lattice periods may lead to a suppression of the correlated insulating phase, in qualitative agreement with the observed fragility of the correlated insulating phase in twisted bilayer graphene. Our predictions, which should be directly verifiable in bichromatic optical lattices, establish that the competition between interaction and incommensuration is a key element of the physics of moiré superlattices.

W. Hansen, D. Schmerek, Chr. Steinebach

L. V. Belvedere, R. L. P. G. Amaral, A. F. DE QUEIROZ

We use the two-dimensional Fermion-Boson mapping to perform a field theory analysis of the effective Lagrangian model for incommensurate charge-density waves (ICDW) in one-dimensional systems. We consider an approach in which both the phase of the complex phonon field and the electron field are dynamical degrees of freedom contributing to the quantum dynamics and symmetry-related features of the ICDW phenomenon. We obtain the bosonized and fermionized versions of the effective electron–phonon Lagrangian. The phase of the phonon field and the phase of the bosonized chiral density of the electron field condense as a soliton order parameter, carrying neither the charge nor the chirality of the electron–phonon system, leading to a periodic sine-Gordon potential. The phonon field is fermionized in terms of a chiral fermionic condensate and the effective model is mapped into the chiral Gross–Neveu (GN) model with two Fermi field species. The linked electron–phonon symmetry of the ICDW system is mapped into the chiral symmetry of the GN model. Within the functional integral formulation, we obtain for the vacuum expectation value of the phonon field < ϕ > = 0 and < ϕ ϕ* > ≠ 0, due to the charge selection rule associated with the chiral electron–phonon symmetry. We show that the two-point correlation function of the phonon field satisfies the cluster decomposition property, as required by the chiral symmetry of the underlying GN model. The quantum description of the ICDW corresponds to charge transport through the lattice, due to the propagation of a "Goldstone mode" carrying the effective charge of the electron–phonon system, is accomplished by an electron–lattice energy redistribution. This accounts for a dynamical Peierls's energy gap generation.