Kondo-lattice phenomenology of twisted WSe2 from compact molecular orbitals of topological bands

The recently discovered superconductivity in twisted WSe2 [1-2] has features suggesting an origin in the Coulomb interactions. Additionally, Kondo-lattice-like signatures are observed, such as a coherent temperature peak of resistivity with a bad-metal magnitude in the peak resistivity. In a previous work [3], we considered a superconducting mechanism when the active top two bands’ Chern numbers are opposite. Here [4], we study the regime where they are the same, by proposing a partial Wannierization approach. A maximally localized Wannier function is constructed, which predominantly describes the top-most moiré band. Meanwhile, the topological obstruction is “absorbed” into a topological power-law orbital. Using a slave-spin approach, we demonstrate the understanding of the Kondo-lattice phenomenology. We also construct a Kondo-lattice t-J model, which enables the analysis of the superconducting pairing [5]. Our work helps advance the understanding of strongly correlated superconductivity in systems with topologically obstructed degrees of freedom.

[1] Y. Xia et al, Nature (2024); arXiv:2508.02662 (2025).

[2] Y. Guo et al, Nature (2025)

[3] F. Xie et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 136503 (2025)

[4] F. Xie, C. Li et al, arXiv: 2503.21769

[5] C. Li, F. Xie et al, arXiv: 2507.21043