Quantum criticality at the Chern-to-normal insulator transition

Yu Xue, Emil Prodan

Published 2013-02-06, updated 2013-04-01Version 3

Using the non-commutative Kubo formula for aperiodic solids [1-3] and a recently developed numerical implementation [4], we study the conductivity $\sigma$ and resistivity $\rho$ tensors as functions of Fermi level and temperature, for models of strongly disordered Chern insulators. The formalism enabled us to converge the transport coefficients at temperatures low enough to enter the quantum critical regime at the Chern-to-trivial insulator transition. We find that the $\rho_{xx}$-curves at different temperatures intersect each other at one single critical point, and that they obey a single-parameter scaling law with an exponent close to the universally accepted value for the unitary symmetry class. However, when compared with the established experimental facts on the plateau-insulator transition in the Integer Quantum Hall Effect, we find a universal critical conductance $\sigma_{xx}^c$ twice as large, an ellipse rather than a semi-circle law, and absence of the quantized Hall insulator phase.