- Accepted Paper
Quantum electron quasicrystal
Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 2 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zspr-vyv3
Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 2 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zspr-vyv3
The strongly correlated phases of the homogeneous electron gas constitute the vocabulary of many-body condensed matter physics and find a natural realization in semiconductors. In this setting, recent neural-network variational Monte Carlo calculations discovered an unexpected quantum phase of matter in wide quantum wells: an electronic quasicrystal formed by a bilayer Wigner crystals with a twist. This state defies classical expectations and emerges in a regime dominated by quantum fluctuations. Here, we develop an analytical framework to reveal its origin. By computing zero-point energy corrections to bilayer Wigner crystal configurations, we show that quantum fluctuations qualitatively reshape the energetic landscape, destabilizing the classical honeycomb state and selecting the quasicrystalline ground state over a broad parameter range. Our results identify zero-point motion as the mechanism stabilizing the electronic quasicrystal and establish a route to spontaneous moiré physics driven by many-body quantum effects.
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