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

Abstract

This document pre-registers a falsifiability-first, two-rung verification ladder for testing whether twist angle (θ) can serve as a reproducible control parameter for activating a drive-locked non-equilibrium electromagnetic regime (DLER) in coupon-scale van der Waals heterostructures (e.g., graphene/hBN/graphene-class stacks). The protocol is deliberately mechanism-agnostic and defines DLER operationally—distinct from amplitude-only resonances—by drive-referenced phase locking (phase-jitter bounded in 1 s blocks with no 2π slips), a finite locking range under controlled ±0.5% detuning of the modulation reference, and mode-map reproducibility/stationarity quantified by preregistered correlation thresholds. To make stationarity implementable during detuning dwells, the protocol separates Full Mode Maps (FMM) (used for cross-trial reproducibility) from a fixed-time Fast Stationarity Probe (FSP) (used within the detuning sequence). Stage A performs a preregistered coarse θ sweep and evaluates a single primary endpoint, the Phase-Lock Score (PLS), using a likelihood-based monotone-vs-single-extremum gate with permutation testing and a two-coupon recurrence plus mode-identity requirement; Stage B is executed only if the gate passes. A mandatory null suite, blinding, explicit stopping rules, calibration logs, and publish-null commitment are included to minimize false positives. Scope is limited to Rungs 1–2; no mechanical, inertial, gravitational, or propulsion claims are made.

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