Layer Hall counterflow as a model probe of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene

The recent constructions of flat moiré minibands in specifically twisted multilayer graphene and twisted transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have facilitated the observation of strong correlations with a convenient tunability. These correlations in flat bands result in the band dispersion heavily influenced by carrier densities, leading to filling-dependent quasiparticle band renormalizations. Particularly, in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG), the band structure–including the quasiparticle energy and wavefunction–is crucial in understanding the correlated properties. Previous theoretical studies have demonstrated the presence of a time-reversal-even charge Hall counterflow in response to a direct current (DC) electric field in twisted bilayers as chiral structures. In this study, we show that such layer Hall counterflow can serve as a sensitive probe for MATBG model parameters, which are currently ambiguous as a result of unavoidable structural relaxation and twist-angle disorder. We present the layer Hall counterflow and the associated in-plane magnetization for three different MATBG continuum models, based on which many-body interacting models have been widely applied to study strong correlations in MATBG. At the single-particle level, our findings indicate notable differences in layer-projected Hall conductivity, both in magnitude and sign, between different MATBG continuum models. Furthermore, our self-consistent Hartree calculations, performed on each of these single-particle continuum models, reveal renormalized layer-projected Hall conductivity by the self-consistent Hartree field.