  We study the single- and many-particle properties of a two-leg ladder model
threaded by a flux with the legs coupled by a spatially varying term. Although
a priori unrelated to twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), the model is found to
have striking similarities: a quasi-flat low-energy band emerges with
characteristics similar to that of magic angle TBG. We study the effect of
interparticle interaction in our model using the density matrix renormalization
group and find that when the band is quasi-flat, the ground state is a
ferromagnetic Mott insulator. As the band becomes more dispersive, the system
undergoes a ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition. We discuss how our
model is relevant not only to magic-angle physics in TBG, but also in the
larger context of one-dimensional correlations and magnetism.
