Twist-Angle Control of Driven Electromagnetic Response in van der Waals Heterostructures

Abstract

This paper presents a preregistered, falsifiability-first experimental ladder to test whether the twist angle θ of a van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure can serve as a control parameter for a repeatable, phase-locked driven electromagnetic state under optical pumping (Rungs 1–2), and—only if those criteria are met—whether any mechanical readout shows a correlated change (optional Rung 3). The protocol is explicitly mechanism-agnostic: it does not assume that modifying electromagnetic observables implies inertial or propulsive effects. Rung 1 is de-scoped to coupon-scale twisted vdW heteropackets (e.g., graphene/hBN/graphene) with mandatory spatial metrology of twist angle and heterostrain and exclusion of defect-dominated regions. Rung 2 defines a binary state flag based on pre-registered thresholds (linewidth narrowing, Q-factor increase, persistence, bounded dissipation, and mode-map reproducibility) and introduces a structural stationarity flag to prevent pump-induced reconstruction from masquerading as a state transition. A two-stage twist sweep is gated by a pre-registered model comparison (monotonic null vs single-extremum alternative) assessed via permutation/wild bootstrap with a stringent progression threshold and cross-coupon replication. If and only if the electromagnetic state is reproducibly toggled with structural stationarity, Rung 3 performs a conditional correlation probe against a mechanical channel, with an instrument-limited entry criterion, fast-toggle/latency discriminants, a mandatory multi-part null suite, and explicit kill criteria. A publish-null commitment and replication requirement are built in.

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