Applied Interdisciplinary Mathematics (AIM) Seminar

2D materials are materials consisting of a single sheet of atoms. The first 2D material, graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms, was isolated in 2005. In recent years, attention has shifted to materials created by stacking 2D materials with a relative twist. Such materials are known as moire materials because of the approximate periodicity of their atomic structures over long distances, known as the moire pattern. In 2018, experiments showed that, when twisted to the first so-called ``magic’’ angle (approximately 1 degree), twisted bilayer graphene exhibits exotic quantum phenomena such as superconductivity. I will present the first rigorous justification of the Bistritzer-MacDonald moire-scale PDE model of twisted bilayer graphene, which played a critical role in identifying twisted bilayer graphene’s magic angles, from a microscopic tight-binding model. If time permits, I will discuss the chiral model, a simplification of the Bistritzer-MacDonald model with remarkable spectral properties. Speaker(s): Alexandre Watson (University of Minnesota)