Absence of edge states in the valley Chern insulator in moiré graphene

Abstract

We study the edge spectrum of twisted sheets of single layer and bilayer graphene in cases where the continuum model predicts a valley Chern insulator -- an insulating state in which the occupied moir\'e mini-bands from each valley have a net Chern number, but both valleys together have no net Chern number, as required by time reversal symmetry. In a simple picture, such a state might be expected to have chiral valley polarized counter-propagating edge states. We present results from exact diagonalization of the tight-binding model of commensurate structures in the ribbon geometry. We find that for both the single-layer and bilayer moir\'e ribbons robust edge modes are generically absent. We attribute this lack of edge modes to the fact that the edge induces valley mixing. Further, even in the bulk, a sharp distinction between the valley Chern insulator and a trivial insulator requires an exact $C_3$ symmetry.