Quantum Hall Effect without Chern Bands

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Abstract

The quantum Hall effect was originally observed in a two-dimensional electron gas forming Landau levels when exposed to a strong perpendicular magnetic field and was later generalized to Chern insulators without net magnetization. Here, further extending the realm of the quantum Hall effect, we report on the robust occurrence of an integer quantized transverse conductance at the onset of disorder in a microscopic lattice model, all bands of which are topologically trivial (zero Chern number). We attribute this phenomenon to the energetic separation of nonquantized Berry fluxes within those bands. Adding disorder then nudges the system into a quantum Hall phase from an extended critical regime obtained by placing the Fermi energy within a broad window inside a trivial band. This natural integer-rounding mechanism manifests as the mobility-gap-induced quantization of a nonuniversal Hall conductance. Our results are corroborated by numerical transport simulations and the analysis of two complementary topological markers.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number186603
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume135
Issue number18
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 41247945

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas