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    Exchange interactions of a Wigner crystal in a magnetic field and Berry curvature: Multiparticle tunneling through complex trajectories

    Kyung-Su Kim*

    • *Contact author: kyungsu@illinois.edu

    Phys. Rev. B 113, 144434 – Published 24 April, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lj9b-3myv

    Abstract

    We study how an out-of-plane magnetic field B(r) and a Berry curvature Ω(k) modify the exchange interactions in a two-dimensional Wigner crystal (WC) using a semiclassical large-rs expansion. When only a magnetic field is present, ring-exchange processes arise from multiparticle tunneling through complex trajectories which constitute complex instanton solutions of the coordinate-space path integral. To leading order in B, each exchange constant Ja acquires an Aharonov-Bohm phase along the zero-field tunneling trajectory. When a Berry curvature is present, the multiparticle tunneling must be considered in a complexified phase space (r,k). To leading order in Ω, Ja acquires a Berry phase along a purely imaginary momentum-space trajectory. When B and Ω are both present, in addition to having both Aharonov-Bohm and Berry phases, the exchange magnitude |Ja| is also exponentially modified due to an effective-mass renormalization. These effects could be relevant for the WC and proximate phases recently observed in rhombohedral multilayer graphene.

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