Unifying description of competing chiral and nematic superconducting states in twisted bilayer graphene

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Baldo, Lucas, Holmvall, Patric, Black-Schaffer, Annica M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Baldo, Lucas
Holmvall, Patric
Black-Schaffer, Annica M.
author_facet Baldo, Lucas
Holmvall, Patric
Black-Schaffer, Annica M.
contents We reveal a striking correspondence between electron- and phonon-driven pairing in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) by mapping an atomistic electronically driven pairing model onto an effective inter-valley, intra-Chern description, originally proposed for phonon-mediated superconductivity. Within the unified framework of intra-Chern pairing, we analyze the competition between nematic and chiral superconducting states. The latter corresponds to the extreme Chern-polarized limit and thus hosts unpaired flat bands within the superconducting gap, which generally disfavors it relative to the nematic states. Crucially, nematic order is locally preferred at each momenta, but the optimal nematic directions are incompatible across the Brillouin zone due to the broken rotation symmetry. This momentum-space frustration enables a chiral ground state at large fillings or weak interactions. Our results thereby both provide a unified understanding of superconductivity in TBG, with a natural cooperation of electron- and phonon-mediated pairing, and clarify the microscopic origin of the competition between the chiral and nematic superconducting states.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_06550
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Unifying description of competing chiral and nematic superconducting states in twisted bilayer graphene
Baldo, Lucas
Holmvall, Patric
Black-Schaffer, Annica M.
Superconductivity
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We reveal a striking correspondence between electron- and phonon-driven pairing in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) by mapping an atomistic electronically driven pairing model onto an effective inter-valley, intra-Chern description, originally proposed for phonon-mediated superconductivity. Within the unified framework of intra-Chern pairing, we analyze the competition between nematic and chiral superconducting states. The latter corresponds to the extreme Chern-polarized limit and thus hosts unpaired flat bands within the superconducting gap, which generally disfavors it relative to the nematic states. Crucially, nematic order is locally preferred at each momenta, but the optimal nematic directions are incompatible across the Brillouin zone due to the broken rotation symmetry. This momentum-space frustration enables a chiral ground state at large fillings or weak interactions. Our results thereby both provide a unified understanding of superconductivity in TBG, with a natural cooperation of electron- and phonon-mediated pairing, and clarify the microscopic origin of the competition between the chiral and nematic superconducting states.
title Unifying description of competing chiral and nematic superconducting states in twisted bilayer graphene
topic Superconductivity
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06550