We review some experimental and theoretical results on the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) observed at zero magnetic field (B=0) in several two-dimensional electron systems (2DES). Scaling of the conductance and magnetic field dependence of the conductance provide convincing evidence that the MIT is driven by Coulomb interactions among the carriers and is dramatically sensitive to spin polarization of the carriers.
The boundary of a topological insulator (TI) hosts an anomaly restricting its possible phases: e.g. 3D strong and weak TIs maintain surface conductivity at any disorder if symmetry is preserved on-average, at least when electron interactions on the s
urface are weak. However the interplay of strong interactions and disorder with the boundary anomaly has not yet been theoretically addressed. Here we study this combination for the edge of a 2D TI and the surface of a 3D weak TI, showing how it can lead to an Anomalous Many Body Localized (AMBL) phase that preserves the anomaly. We discuss how the anomalous Kramers parity switching with pi flux arises in the bosonized theory of the localized helical state. The anomaly can be probed in localized boundaries by electrostatically sensing nonlinear hopping transport with e/2 shot noise. Our AMBL construction in 3D weak TIs fails for 3D strong TIs, suggesting that their anomaly restrictions are distinguished by strong interactions.
Two dimensional topological superconductors (TS) host chiral Majorana modes (MMs) localized at the boundaries. In this work, within quasiclassical approximation we study the effect of disorder on the localization length of MMs in two dimensional spin
-orbit (SO) coupled superconductors. We find nonmonotonic behavior of the Majorana localization length as a function of disorder strength. At weak disorder, the Majorana localization length decreases with an increasing disorder strength. Decreasing the disorder scattering time below a critical value $tau_c$, the Majorana localization length starts to increase. The critical scattering time depends on the relative magnitudes of the two ingredients behind TS: SO coupling and exchange field. For dominating SO coupling, $tau_c$ is small and vice versa for the dominating exchange field.
Magnetoconductance (MC) in a parallel magnetic field B has been measured in a two-dimensional electron system in Si, in the regime where the conductivity decreases as sigma (n_s,T,B=0)=sigma (n_s,T=0) + A(n_s)T^2 (n_s -- carrier density) to a non-zer
o value as temperature T->0. Very near the B=0 metal-insulator transition, there is a large initial drop in sigma with increasing B, followed by a much weaker sigma (B). At higher n_s, the initial drop of MC is less pronounced.
The low-temperature Hall resistivity rho_{xy} of La_{2/3}A_{1/3}MnO_3 single crystals (where A stands for Ca, Pb and Ca, or Sr) can be separated into Ordinary and Anomalous contributions, giving rise to Ordinary and Anomalous Hall effects, respective
ly. However, no such decomposition is possible near the Curie temperature which, in these systems, is close to metal-to-insulator transition. Rather, for all of these compounds and to a good approximation, the rho_{xy} data at various temperatures and magnetic fields collapse (up to an overall scale), on to a single function of the reduced magnetization m=M/M_{sat}, the extremum of this function lying at m~0.4. A new mechanism for the Anomalous Hall Effect in the inelastic hopping regime, which reproduces these scaling curves, is identified. This mechanism, which is an extension of Holsteins model for the Ordinary Hall effect in the hopping regime, arises from the combined effects of the double-exchange-induced quantal phase in triads of Mn ions and spin-orbit interactions. We identify processes that lead to the Anomalous Hall Effect for localized carriers and, along the way, analyze issues of quantum interference in the presence of phonon-assisted hopping. Our results suggest that, near the ferromagnet-to-paramagnet transition, it is appropriate to describe transport in manganites in terms of carrier hopping between states that are localized due to combined effect of magnetic and non-magnetic disorder. We attribute the qualitative variations in resistivity characteristics across manganite compounds to the differing strengths of their carrier self-trapping, and conclude that both disorder-induced localization and self-trapping effects are important for transport.
Recent angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements have identified an inversion symmetry breaking Weyl semimetal phase in TaAs and NbAs. In an inversion symmetry breaking Weyl semimetal the left and the right handed Weyl points can occur a
t different energies and the energy mismatch between the Weyl points of opposite chirality is known as the chiral chemical potential. In the presence of the chiral chemical potential, the nontrivial Berry curvature of the Weyl fermions gives rise to the emph{dynamic} chiral magnetic effect. This describes how a time dependent magnetic field leads to an electrical current along the applied field direction, which is also proportional to the field strength. We derive a general formula for the dynamic chiral magnetic conductivity of the inversion symmetry breaking Weyl semimetal. We show that the measurement of the natural optical activity or rotary power provides a direct confirmation of the existence of the dynamic chiral magnetic effect in inversion symmetry breaking Weyl semimetals.