English

Integer quantum Hall transition in a $\textit{fraction}$ of a Landau level

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2018-01-23 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We investigate the quantum Hall problem in the lowest Landau level in two dimensions, in the presence of an arbitrary number of δ\delta-function potentials arranged in different geometric configurations. When the number of delta functions NδN_\delta is smaller than the number of flux quanta through the system (NϕN_\phi), there is a manifold of (NϕNδ)(N_\phi-N_\delta) degenerate states at the original Landau level energy. We prove that the total Chern number of this set of states is +1 regardless of the number or position of the δ\delta functions. Furthermore, we find numerically that, upon the addition of disorder, this subspace includes a quantum Hall transition which is (in a well-defined sense) quantitatively\textit{quantitatively} the same as that for the lowest Landau level without δ\delta-function impurities, but with a reduced number NϕNϕNδN_\phi' \equiv N_\phi-N_\delta of magnetic flux quanta. We discuss the implications of these results for studies of the integer plateau transitions, as well as for the many-body problem in the presence of electron-electron interactions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.04688,
  title  = {Integer quantum Hall transition in a $\textit{fraction}$ of a Landau level},
  author = {Matteo Ippoliti and Scott D. Geraedts and R. N. Bhatt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.04688},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

11 pages (including appendix and references), 7 figures