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The study of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is a hot topic in condensed matter physics with special focus onmagic anglesof twisting at which TBG acquires unusual properties. Mathematically, topologically non-trivial flat bands appear at those special angles. The chiral model of TBG pioneered by Tarnopolsky, Kruchkov, and Vishwanath (2019) has particularly nice mathematical properties and we survey, and in some cases, clarify, recent rigorous results which exploit them. 

Abstract We analyse symmetries of Bloch eigenfunctions at magic angles for the Tarnopolsky–Kruchkov–Vishwanath chiral model of the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) following the framework introduced by Becker–Embree–Wittsten–Zworski. We show that vanishing of the first Bloch eigenvalue away from the Dirac points implies its vanishing at all momenta, that is, the existence of a flat band. We also show how the multiplicity of the flat band is related to the nodal set of the Bloch eigenfunctions. We conclude with two numerical observations about the structure of flat bands. 

We study Dirac points of the chiral model of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with constant in-plane magnetic field. The striking feature of the chiral model is the presence of perfectly flat bands atmagic anglesof twisting. The Dirac points for zero magnetic field and non-magic angles of twisting are fixed at high symmetry pointsKandK'in the Brillouin zone, with\Gammadenoting the remaining high symmetry point. For a fixed small constant in-plane magnetic field, we show that as the angle of twisting varies between magic angles, the Dirac points move betweenK,K'points and the\Gammapoint. In particular, near magic angles, the Dirac points are located near the\Gammapoint. For special directions of the magnetic field, we show that the Dirac points move, as the twisting angle varies, along straight lines and bifurcate orthogonally at distinguished points. At the bifurcation points, the linear dispersion relation of the merging Dirac points disappears and exhibit a quadratic band crossing point (QBCP). The results are illustrated by links to animations suggesting interesting additional structure. 

Abstract Magic angles in the chiral model of twisted bilayer graphene are parameters for which the chiral version of the Bistritzer–MacDonald Hamiltonian exhibits a flat band at energy zero. We compute the sums over powers of (complex) magic angles and use that to show that the set of magic angles is infinite. We also provide a new proof of the existence of the first real magic angle, showing also that the corresponding flat band has minimal multiplicity for the simplest possible choice of potentials satisfying all symmetries. These results indicate (though do not prove) a hidden integrability of the chiral model.