Kondo Lattice Model of Magic-Angle Twisted-Bilayer Graphene: Hund's Rule, Local-Moment Fluctuations, and Low-Energy Effective Theory

Abstract

We apply a generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation to the extended Anderson-like topological heavy fermion (THF) model for the magic-angle $(\theta=1.05^{\circ})$ twisted bilayer graphene (MATBLG) (Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 047601 (2022)), to obtain its Kondo Lattice limit. In this limit localized $f$-electrons on a triangular lattice interact with topological conduction $c$-electrons. By solving the exact limit of the THF model, we show that the integer fillings $\nu=0, \pm 1, \pm 2$ are controlled by the heavy $f$-electrons, while $\nu = \pm 3$ is at the border of a phase transition between two $f$-electron fillings. For $\nu=0, \pm 1, \pm 2$, we then calculate the RKKY interactions between the $f$-moments in the full model and analytically prove the SU(4) Hund's rule for the ground state which maintains that two $f$-electrons fill the same valley-spin flavor. Our (ferromagnetic interactions in the) spin model dramatically differ from the usual Heisenberg antiferromagnetic interactions expected at strong coupling. We show the ground state in some limits can be found exactly by employing a positive semidefinite "bond-operators" method. We then compute the excitation spectrum of the $f$-moments in the ordered ground state, prove the stability of the ground state favored by RKKY interactions, and discuss the properties of the Goldstone modes, the (reason for the accidental) degeneracy of (some of) the excitation modes, and the physics of their phase stiffness. We develop a low-energy effective theory for the $f$-moments and obtain analytic expressions for the dispersion of the collective modes. We discuss the relevance of our results to the spin-entropy experiments in twisted bilayer graphene.