Continuum effective Hamiltonian for graphene bilayers for an arbitrary smooth lattice deformation from microscopic theories

Abstract: We provide a systematic real space derivation of the continuum Hamiltonian for a graphene bilayer starting from a microscopic lattice theory, allowing for an arbitrary inhomogeneous smooth lattice deformation, including a twist. Two different microscopic models are analyzed: first, a Slater-Koster like model and second, ab-initio derived model. We envision that our effective Hamiltonian can be used in conjunction with an experimentally determined atomic lattice deformation in twisted bilayer graphene in a specific device to predict and compare the electronic spectra with scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements. As a byproduct, our approach provides electron-phonon couplings in the continuum Hamiltonian from microscopic models for any bilayer stacking. In the companion paper we analyze in detail the continuum models for relaxed atomic configurations of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene.