Nematicity Arising from a Chiral Superconducting Ground State in Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene under In-Plane Magnetic Fields

Recent measurements of the resistivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene near the superconducting transition temperature show twofold anisotropy, or nematicity, when changing the direction of an in-plane magnetic field [Cao et al., Science 372, 264 (2021)]. This was interpreted as strong evidence for exotic nematic superconductivity instead of the widely proposed chiral superconductivity. Counter-intuitively, we demonstrate that in two-dimensional chiral superconductors the in-plane magnetic field can hybridize the two chiral superconducting order parameters to induce a phase that shows nematicity in the transport response. Its paraconductivity is modulated as cos(2 theta(B)), with theta(B) being the direction of the in-plane magnetic field, consistent with experiment in twisted bilayer graphene. We therefore suggest that the nematic response reported by Cao et al. does not rule out a chiral superconducting ground state.

Automated summary

Recent measurements of resistivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene near the superconducting transition temperature exhibit twofold anisotropy when changing the direction of an in-plane magnetic field. This was interpreted as evidence for exotic nematic superconductivity. However, experimental findings suggest that in-plane magnetic field can hybridize chiral superconducting order parameters to induce nematicity in the transport response.