Non-Hermitian Boundary Modes and Topology.

We consider conditions for the existence of boundary modes in non-Hermitian systems with edges of arbitrary codimension. Through a universal formulation of formation criteria for boundary modes in terms of local Green's functions, we outline a generic perspective on the appearance of such modes and generate corresponding dispersion relations. In the process, we explain the skin effect in both topological and nontopological systems, exhaustively generalizing bulk-boundary correspondence to different types of non-Hermitian gap conditions, a prominent distinguishing feature of such systems. Indeed, we expose a direct relation between the presence of a point gap invariant and the appearance of skin modes when this gap is trivialized by an edge. This correspondence is established via a doubled Green's function, inspired by doubled Hamiltonian methods used to classify Floquet and, more recently, non-Hermitian topological phases. Our work constitutes a general tool, as well as a unifying perspective for this rapidly evolving field. Indeed, as a concrete application we find that our method can expose novel non-Hermitian topological regimes beyond the reach of previous methods.

Origin of Magic Angles in Twisted Bilayer Graphene.

Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) was recently shown to host superconductivity when tuned to special "magic angles" at which isolated and relatively flat bands appear. However, until now the origin of the magic angles and their irregular pattern have remained a mystery. Here we report on a fundamental continuum model for TBG which features not just the vanishing of the Fermi velocity, but also the perfect flattening of the entire lowest band. When parametrized in terms of α∼1/θ, the magic angles recur with a remarkable periodicity of Δα≃3/2. We show analytically that the exactly flat band wave functions can be constructed from the doubly periodic functions composed of ratios of theta functions-reminiscent of quantum Hall wave functions on the torus. We further report on the unusual robustness of the experimentally relevant first magic angle, address its properties analytically, and discuss how lattice relaxation effects help justify our model parameters.