Hofstadter quasicrystals, hidden symmetries and irrational quantum oscillations

Abstract

Landau levels perturbed by a periodic potential is a prime setting to design quantum systems with exotic fractal spectra. Motivated by recent advances in twistronics, we introduce `Hofstadter quasicrystal' problem describing Landau levels perturbed by a set of incommensurate cosine waves. We illustrate the underlying physics for moir\'{e} quasicrystals with octagonal and dodecagonal symmetries, finding spectra that are vastly more complex than the Hofstadter spectrum. Surprisingly, due to the high spatial symmetry, the quasicrystal problem exhibits hidden `inner' symmetry arising at special `magic' values of the magnetic field. The $1/B$-periodic pattern of magic field values explains striking wide-range oscillations in the observed spectra that have irrational periodicity incommensurate with the Aharonov-Bohm and Brown-Zak periodicities. The prominent character of these oscillations makes them readily accessible in state-of-the-art moir\'{e} graphene systems.