Critical behavior of the transport coefficients at the plateau-insulator transition in IQHE

ORAL

Abstract

Using the non-commutative Kubo formula for disordered lattice systems, we mapped the conductivity tensor $\sigma(E_F,T)$ as function of Fermi level $E_F$ and temperature T for the disordered Hofstadter model. Convergence and accuracy tests indicate that the simulations can be used to investigate the critical behavior near the plateau-insulator transition. Our analysis provides the first quantitative theoretical confirmation of the well established experimental facts about the critical behavior: 1) The semicircle law for the components of the conductivity tensor; 2) The existence of the quantized Hall insulator state characterized by zero direct and Hall conductivities, but with Hall resistivity quantized at $h/e^2$; 3) Single scaling behavior with exponents that are consistent with previous studies.

*This work was supported by the U.S. NSF grants DMS-1066045 and DMR-1056168.

Authors

  • Juntao Song

    • Department of Physics, Yeshiva University, New York, NY 10016
  • Emil Prodan

    • Department of Physics, Yeshiva University, New York, NY 10016
    • Yeshiva University, New York, NY
    • Yeshiva University