Change of chirality at magic angles of twisted bilayer graphene
Abstract
We derive a simple formula for the real-space chirality of twisted bilayer graphene that can be related to the cross-product of its sheet currents. This quantity shows well-defined plateaus for the first remote band as function of the gate voltage which are approximately quantized for commensurate twist angles. The zeroth plateau corresponds to the first magic angle where a sign change occurs due to an emergent C6-symmetry. Our observation offers a new definition of the magic angle based on a macroscopic observable which is accessible in typical transport experiments.
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