Quantum Hall ice

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that chiral kagome ice can induce an integer quantum Hall effect in coupled electrons, with robust quantized conductance maintained despite flux disorder and finite temperatures.

Contribution

It reveals the coexistence of quantum Hall effect with ice manifold degeneracy and flux disorder, a novel realization in condensed matter physics.

Findings

Quantum Hall effect persists over a range of temperatures and densities.

Spectral gap remains robust despite flux disorder.

Quantized Hall conductance is maintained with exponentially small corrections.

Abstract

We show that the chiral kagome ice manifold exhibits an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) when coupled to itinerant electrons. Although electron-mediated interactions select a magnetically ordered ground state, the full ice manifold can coexist with the IQHE over a range of finite temperatures. The degenerate ice states provide a natural realization of power-law correlated flux disorder, for which the spectral gap of the system remains robust. The quantized (up to exponentially small finite-temperature corrections) Hall conductance persists over a wide range of electron densities due to the disorder-induced localization of electronic states.