We study transport properties of a Chalker-Coddington type model in the plane which presents asymptotically pure anti-clockwise rotation on the left and clockwise rotation on the right. We prove delocalisation in the sense that the absolutely continuous spectrum covers the whole unit circle. The result is of topological nature and independent of the details of the model.
In Ref.1 (Physical Review B 80, 041304(R) (2009)), we reported an estimate of the critical exponent for the divergence of the localization length at the quantum Hall transition that is significantly larger than those reported in the previous published work of other authors. In this paper, we update our finite size scaling analysis of the Chalker-Coddington model and suggest the origin of the previous underestimate by other authors. We also compare our results with the predictions of Lutken and Ross (Physics Letters B 653, 363 (2007)).
We consider the Chalker-Coddington network model for the Integer Quantum Hall Effect, and examine the possibility of solving it exactly. In the supersymmetric path integral framework, we introduce a truncation procedure, leading to a series of well-defined two-dimensional loop models, with two loop flavours. In the phase diagram of the first-order truncated model, we identify four integrable branches related to the dilute Birman-Wenzl-Murakami braid-monoid algebra, and parameterised by the loop fugacity $n$. In the continuum limit, two of these branches (1,2) are described by a pair of decoupled copies of a Coulomb-Gas theory, whereas the other two branches (3,4) couple the two loop flavours, and relate to an $SU(2)_r times SU(2)_r / SU(2)_{2r}$ Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) coset model for the particular values $n= -2cos[pi/(r+2)]$ where $r$ is a positive integer. The truncated Chalker-Coddington model is the $n=0$ point of branch 4. By numerical diagonalisation, we find that its universality class is neither an analytic continuation of the WZW coset, nor the universality class of the original Chalker-Coddington model. It constitutes rather an integrable, critical approximation to the latter.
We present the emergence of gapless surface states in a three-dimensional Chalker-Coddington type network model with spatial periodicity. The model consists of a ring network placed on every face of the cubic unit cells in the simple cubic lattice. The scattering among ring-propagating modes in the adjacent rings is described by the S-matrices, which control possible symmetries of the system. The model maps to a Floquet-Bloch system, and the quasienergy spectrum can exhibit a gapped bulk band structure and gapless surface states. Symmetry properties of the system and robustness of the gapless surface states are explored in comparison to topological crystalline insulator. We also discuss other crystal structures, a gauge symmetry, and a possible optical realization of the network model.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the propagation of topological currents along magnetic interfaces (also known as magnetic walls) of a two-dimensional material. We consider tight-binding magnetic models associated to generic magnetic multi-interfaces and describe the K-theoretical setting in which a bulk-interface duality can be derived. Then, the (trivial) case of a localized magnetic field and the (non trivial) case of the Iwatsuka magnetic field are considered in full detail. This is a pedagogical preparatory work that aims to anticipate the study of more complicated multi-interface magnetic systems.
Gapped periodic quantum systems exhibit an interesting Localization Dichotomy, which emerges when one looks at the localization of the optimally localized Wannier functions associated to the Bloch bands below the gap. As recently proved, either these Wannier functions are exponentially localized, as it happens whenever the Hamiltonian operator is time-reversal symmetric, or they are delocalized in the sense that the expectation value of $|mathbf{x}|^2$ diverges. Intermediate regimes are forbidden. Following the lesson of our Maestro, to whom this contribution is gratefully dedicated, we find useful to explain this subtle mathematical phenomenon in the simplest possible model, namely the discrete model proposed by Haldane (Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2017 (1988)). We include a pedagogical introduction to the model and we explain its Localization Dichotomy by explicit analytical arguments. We then introduce the reader to the more general, model-independent version of the dichotomy proved in (Commun. Math. Phys. 359, 61-100 (2018)), and finally we announce further generalizations to non-periodic models.