Extend the Bistritzer–MacDonald continuum model to the high-energy sector

Develop a Bistritzer–MacDonald-like continuum model that determines whether the conclusions of the Bistritzer–MacDonald continuum model extend to the high-energy region of uniaxially stretched AB-stacked bilayer graphene.

Background

The continuum Hamiltonian for uniaxially stretched AB-stacked bilayer graphene separates into low-energy and high-energy blocks after enlarging the single-layer unit cell. The analysis in the paper retains the low-energy block near the Dirac points, while noting that the high-energy block has interlayer interaction factors of comparable magnitude, differing primarily by phase.

The authors explicitly leave unresolved whether the physical conclusions and modeling framework of the Bistritzer–MacDonald continuum model can be applied to this high-energy sector. Resolving this question would enable a more complete description of the band structure beyond the low-energy Dirac-point approximation.