Correlated phases and topological phase transition in twisted bilayer graphene at one quantum of magnetic flux

Abstract

When the perpendicular magnetic flux per unit cell in a crystal is equal to the quantum of magnetic flux, $\Phi_0=h/e$, we enter the 'Hofstadter regime'. The large unit cell of moir\'e materials like magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) allows the experimental study of this regime at feasible values of the field around $20$ to $30$ T. In this work, we report numerical analysis of a tight-binding model for MATBG at one quantum of external magnetic flux, including the long-range Coulomb and on-site Hubbard interaction. We study the correlated states for dopings of $-2,0$ and $2$ electrons per unit cell at the mean-field level. We find competing insulators with Chern numbers $2$ and $0$ at positive doping, the stability of which is determined by the dielectric screening, which opens up the possibility of observing a topological phase transition in this system.