Electron-Photon Chern Number in Cavity-Embedded 2D Moiré Materials.

We explore theoretically how the topological properties of 2D materials can be manipulated by cavity quantum electromagnetic fields for both resonant and off-resonant electron-photon coupling, with a focus on van der Waals moiré superlattices. We investigate an electron-photon topological Chern number for the cavity-dressed energy minibands that is well defined for any degree of hybridization and entanglement of the electron and photon states. While an off-resonant cavity mode can renormalize electronic topological phases that exist without cavity coupling, we show that when the cavity mode is resonant to electronic miniband transitions, new and higher electron-photon Chern numbers can emerge.