Edge and Impurity Effects on Quantization of Hall Currents

We consider the edge Hall conductance and show it is invariant under perturbations located in a strip along the edge (decaying perturbations far from the edge are also allowed). This enables us to prove for the edge conductances a general sum rule relating currents due to the presence of two different media located respectively on the left and on the right half plane. As a particular interesting case we put forward a general quantization formula for the difference of edge Hall conductances in semi-infinite samples with and without a confining wall. It implies in particular that the edge Hall conductance takes its ideal quantized value under a gap condition for the bulk Hamiltonian, or under some localization properties for a random bulk Hamiltonian (provided one first regularizes the conductance; we shall discuss this regularization issue). Our quantization formula also shows that deviations from the ideal value occurs if a semi-infinite distribution of impurity potentials is repulsive enough to produce current-carrying surface states on its boundary.UPR 7061 au CNRSUMR 8088 au CNRS     

Spin-orbit scattering in the quantum Hall effect

We study dynamics of electrons in a magnetic field using a network model with two channels per link with random mixing, while the intrachannel potential is periodic (non-random); the channels represent two spin states. We consider channel mixing as function of the energy separation of the two extended states, and show that the phase diagram is different from the standard quantum Hall diagram for random intrachannel potential.     

Macroscopic Diffusion from a Hamilton-like Dynamics

We introduce and analyze a model for the transport of particles or energy in extended lattice systems. The dynamics of the model acts on a discrete phase space at discrete times but has nonetheless some of the characteristic properties of Hamiltonian dynamics in a confined phase space: it is deterministic, periodic, reversible and conservative. Randomness enters the model as a way to model ignorance about initial conditions and interactions between the components of the system. The orbits of the particles are non-intersecting random loops. We prove, by a weak law of large number, the validity of a diffusion equation for the macroscopic observables of interest for times that are arbitrary large, but small compared to the minimal recurrence time of the dynamics.     

Lattice electrons on a cylinder surface in the presence of rational magnetic flux and disorder

We consider a disordered two-dimensional system of independent lattice electrons in a perpendicular magnetic field with rigid confinement in one direction and generalized periodic boundary conditions (GPBC) in the other direction. The objects investigated numerically are the orbits in the plane spanned by the energy eigenvalues and the corresponding center of mass coordinate in the confined direction, parameterized by the phase characterizing the GPBC. The Kubo Hall conductivity is expressed in terms of the winding numbers of these orbits. For vanishing disorder the spectrum of the system consists of Harper bands with energy levels corresponding to the edge states within the band gaps. Disorder leads to broadening of the bands. For sufficiently large systems localized states occur in the band tails. We find that within the mobility gaps of bulk states the Diophantine equation determines the value of the Hall conductivity as known for systems with torus geometry (PBCs in both directions). Within the spectral bands of extended states the Hall conductivity fluctuates strongly. For sufficiently large systems the generic behavior of localization-delocalization transitions characteristic for the quantum Hall effect are recovered.     

Adiabatic theorems and applications to the quantum hall effect

We study an adiabatic evolution that approximates the physical dynamics and describes a natural parallel transport in spectral subspaces. Using this we prove two folk theorems about the adiabatic limit of quantum mechanics: 1. For slow time variation of the Hamiltonian, the time evolution reduces to spectral subspaces bordered by gaps. 2. The eventual tunneling out of such spectral subspaces is smaller than any inverse power of the time scale if the Hamiltonian varies infinitly smoothly over a finite interval. Except for the existence of gaps, no assumptions are made on the nature of the spectrum. We apply these results to charge transport in quantum Hall Hamiltonians and prove that the flux averaged charge transport is an integer in the adiabatic limit.     

Universal periods in quantum Hall droplets

Using the hierarchy picture of the fractional quantum Hall effect, we study the ground-state periodicity of a finite size quantum Hall droplet in a quantum Hall fluid of a different filling factor. The droplet edge charge is periodically modulated with flux through the droplet and will lead to a periodic variation in the conductance of a nearby point contact, such as occurs in some quantum Hall interferometers. Our model is consistent with experiment and predicts that superperiods can be observed in geometries where no interfering trajectories occur. The model may also provide an experimentally feasible method of detecting elusive neutral modes and otherwise obtaining information about the microscopic edge structure in fractional quantum Hall states.     

The conductivity of a two-dimensional electronic system of finite width in the presence of a strong perpendicular magnetic field and a random potential

Starting from the Kubo formula the conductivity tensor of a two-dimensional electronic system in a perpendicular magnetic field is evaluated. It is shown that at zero temperature only the states at the Fermi level contribute. The Hall conductivity of a purely periodic system of finite width is calculated and compared with earlier suggestions by Thouless et al. For a system described by a periodic and a random potential the Hall conductivity is calculated as a function of the electron density. The results emphasize the importance of disorder independent current carrying states for the Quantum Hall effect which extend along the boundaries of the system. The plateaux values of the Hall conductivity are related to the number of these states, and are independent of the existence of extended bulk states below the Fermi energy.     

Equality of the Bulk and Edge Hall Conductances in a Mobility Gap

We consider the edge and bulk conductances for 2D quantum Hall systems in which the Fermi energy falls in a band where bulk states are localized. We show that the resulting quantities are equal, when appropriately defined. An appropriate definition of the edge conductance may be obtained through a suitable time averaging procedure or by including a contribution from states in the localized band. In a further result on the Harper Hamiltonian, we show that this contribution is essential. In an appendix we establish quantized plateaus for the conductance of systems which need not be translation ergodic. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Strongly Correlated Phases in Rapidly Rotating Bose Gases

We consider a system of trapped spinless bosons interacting with a repulsive potential and subject to rotation. In the limit of rapid rotation and small scattering length, we rigorously show that the ground state energy converges to that of a simplified model Hamiltonian with contact interaction projected onto the Lowest Landau Level. This effective Hamiltonian models the bosonic analogue of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect (FQHE). For a fixed number of particles, we also prove convergence of states; in particular, in a certain regime we show convergence towards the bosonic Laughlin wavefunction. This is the first rigorous justification of the effective FQHE Hamiltonian for rapidly rotating Bose gases. We review previous results on this effective Hamiltonian and outline open problems.     

Approach to the Extended States Conjecture

We develop a rather explicit approach concerning the extended states conjecture for the discrete random Schrödinger operator, or more generally for the so-called Anderson-type Hamiltonian. Our work is based on deep mathematical results by Jak?i?–Last (Duke Math. J. 133(1):185–204, 2006). Concretely, we suggest two new directions of research: We provide a formula which may lead the way to a rigorous proof of the conjecture, and an implementation of the proposed approach which yields numerical evidence in favor of the conjecture being true for the discrete random Schrödinger operator in dimension two. Not being based on scaling theory, this method eliminates problems due to boundary conditions, common to previous numerical methods in the field. At the same time, as with any numerical experiment, one cannot exclude finite-size effects with complete certainty. We numerically track the “bulk distribution” (here: the distribution of where we most likely find an electron) of a wave packet initially located at the origin, after iterative application of the discrete random Schrödinger operator.     

Dissipation and criticality in the lowest Landau level of graphene

The lowest Landau level of graphene is studied numerically by considering a tight-binding Hamiltonian with disorder. The Hall conductance sigma_{xy} and the longitudinal conductance sigma_{xx} are computed. We demonstrate that bond disorder can produce a plateaulike feature centered at nu=0, while the longitudinal conductance is nonzero in the same region, reflecting a band of extended states between +/-E_{c}, whose magnitude depends on the disorder strength. The critical exponent corresponding to the localization length at the edges of this band is found to be 2.47+/-0.04. When both bond disorder and a finite mass term exist the localization length exponent varies continuously between approximately 1.0 and approximately 7/3.     

Self-assembled nanocrystalline CdSe thin films

The topic of this contribution is the investigation of quantum states and quantum Hall effect in electron gas subjected to a periodic potential of the lateral lattice. The potential is formed by triangular quantum antidots located on the sites of the square lattice. In such a system the inversion center and the four-fold rotation symmetry are absent. The topological invariants which characterize different magnetic subbands and their Hall conductances are calculated. It is shown that the details of the antidot geometry are crucial for the Hall conductance quantization rule. The critical values of lattice parameters defining the shape of triangular antidots at which the Hall conductance is changed drastically are determined. We demonstrate that the quantum states and Hall conductance quantization law for the triangular antidot lattice differ from the case of the square lattice with cylindrical antidots. As an example, the Hall conductances of magnetic subbands for different antidot geometries are calculated for the case when the number of magnetic flux quanta per unit cell is equal to three.     

Infinite chain of different deltas: A simple model for a quantum wire

We present the exact diagonalization of the Schr?dinger operator corresponding to a periodic potential with N deltas of different couplings, for arbitrary N. This basic structure can repeat itself an infinite number of times. Calculations of band structure can be performed with a high degree of accuracy for an infinite chain and of the correspondent eigenlevels in the case of a random chain. The main physical motivation is to modelate quantum wire band structure and the calculation of the associated density of states. These quantities show the fundamental properties we expect for periodic structures although for low energy the band gaps follow unpredictable patterns. In the case of random chains we find Anderson localization; we analize also the role of the eigenstates in the localization patterns and find clear signals of fractality in the conductance. In spite of the simplicity of the model many of the salient features expected in a quantum wire are well reproduced. Received 24 June 2002 Published online 29 November 2002     

Theory of the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect in graphite

We predict the existence of a three-dimensional quantum Hall effect plateau in a graphite crystal subject to a magnetic field. The plateau has a Hall conductivity quantized at 4e2/variant Planck's over 2pi 1/c0 with c0 the c-axis lattice constant. We analyze the three-dimensional Hofstadter problem of a realistic tight-binding Hamiltonian for graphite, find the gaps in the spectrum, and estimate the critical value of the magnetic field above which the Hall plateau appears. When the Fermi level is in the bulk Landau gap, Hall transport occurs through the appearance of chiral surface states. We estimate the magnetic field necessary for the appearance of the effect to be 15.4 T for electron carriers and 7.0 T for holes.     

Continuity of the Integrated Density of States on Random Length Metric Graphs

We establish several properties of the integrated density of states for random quantum graphs: Under appropriate ergodicity and amenability assumptions, the integrated density of states can be defined using an exhaustion procedure by compact subgraphs. A trace per unit volume formula holds, similarly as in the Euclidean case. Our setting includes periodic graphs. For a model where the edge lengths are random and vary independently in a smooth way we prove a Wegner estimate and related regularity results for the integrated density of states. These results are illustrated for an example based on the Kagome lattice. In the periodic case we characterise all compactly supported eigenfunctions and calculate the position and size of discontinuities of the integrated density of states.      

Effective spin dephasing mechanism in confined two-dimensional topological insulators

A Kramers pair of helical edge states in quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) is robust against normal dephasing but not robust to spin dephasing. In our work, we provide an effective spin dephasing mechanism in the puddles of two-dimensional (2D) QSHE, which is simulated as quantum dots modeled by 2D massive Dirac Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that the spin dephasing effect can originate from the combination of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron-phonon interaction, which gives rise to inelastic backscattering in edge states within the topological insulator quantum dots, although the time-reversal symmetry is preserved throughout. Finally, we discuss the tunneling between extended helical edge states and local edge states in the QSH quantum dots, which leads to backscattering in the extended edge states. These results can explain the more robust edge transport in InAs/GaSb QSH systems.     

Integer and fractional quantum Hall effect in a strip of stripes

We study anisotropic stripe models of interacting electrons in the presence of magnetic fields in the quantum Hall regime with integer and fractional filling factors. The model consists of an infinite strip of finite width that contains periodically arranged stripes (forming supercells) to which the electrons are confined and between which they can hop with associated magnetic phases. The interacting electron system within the one-dimensional stripes are described by Luttinger liquids and shown to give rise to charge and spin density waves that lead to periodic structures within the stripe with a reciprocal wavevector 8k _F in a mean field approximation. This wavevector gives rise to Umklapp scattering and resonant scattering that results in gaps and chiral edge states at all known integer and fractional filling factors ν. The integer and odd denominator filling factors arise for a uniform distribution of stripes, whereas the even denominator filling factors arise for a non-uniform stripe distribution. We focus on the ground state of the system, and identify the quantum Hall regime via the quantized Hall conductance. For this we calculate the Hall conductance via the Streda formula and show that it is given by σ _H = νe ²/h for all filling factors. In addition, we show that the composite fermion picture follows directly from the condition of the resonant Umklapp scattering.     

Droplet States in the XXZ Heisenberg Chain

We consider the ground states of the ferromagnetic XXZ chain with spin up boundary conditions. The ground state of this model, restricted to a sector with a fixed number of down spins, describes a droplet of down spins in an environment of up spins. We find the exact energy and the states that describe these droplets in the limit of an infinite number of down spins. We prove that there is a gap in the spectrum above the droplet states. As the XXZ Hamiltonian has a gap above the fully magnetized ground states as well, this means that the droplet states (for sufficiently large droplets) form an isolated band. The width of this band tends to zero in the limit of infinitely large droplets. We also prove the analogous results for finite chains with periodic boundary conditions and for the infinite chain. Received: 5 September 2000 / Accepted: 8 December 2000