English

Numerical study of spin quantum Hall transitions in superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry

Superconductivity 2009-11-10 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

We present results of numerical studies of spin quantum Hall transitions in disordered superconductors, in which the pairing order parameter breaks time-reversal symmetry. We focus mainly on p-wave superconductors in which one of the spin components is conserved. The transport properties of the system are studied by numerically diagonalizing pairing Hamiltonians on a lattice, and by calculating the Chern and Thouless numbers of the quasiparticle states. We find that in the presence of disorder, (spin-)current carrying states exist only at discrete critical energies in the thermodynamic limit, and the spin-quantum Hall transition driven by an external Zeeman field has the same critical behavior as the usual integer quantum Hall transition of non-interacting electrons. These critical energies merge and disappear as disorder strength increases, in a manner similar to those in lattice models for integer quantum Hall transition.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0404548,
  title  = {Numerical study of spin quantum Hall transitions in superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry},
  author = {Qinghong Cui and Xin Wan and Kun Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0404548},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

9 pages, 9 figures