Periodic Landau gauge and Quantum Hall effect in twisted bilayer graphene

Abstract

Energy versus magnetic field (Hofstadter butterfly diagram) in twisted bilayer graphene is studied theoretically. If we take the usual Landau gauge, we cannot take a finite periodicity even when the magnetic flux through a supercell is a rational number. We show that the \textit{periodic} Landau gauge, which has the periodicity in one direction, makes it possible to obtain the Hofstadter butterfly diagram. Since a supercell can be large, magnetic flux through a supercell normalized by the flux quantum can be a fractional number with a small denominator, even when a magnetic field is not extremely strong. As a result, quantized Hall conductance can be a solution of nontrivial Diophantine equation.