Quantum Hall Effect without Chern Bands

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a quantum Hall effect in a lattice model with topologically trivial bands, where disorder induces quantized conductance through a novel Berry flux separation mechanism.

Contribution

It reveals a new disorder-induced quantum Hall phase in trivial bands, expanding understanding beyond Chern insulators and Landau levels.

Findings

Quantized Hall conductance appears at disorder onset in trivial bands.

Numerical simulations confirm the robustness of the quantization.

Berry flux separation explains the emergence of the quantum Hall phase.

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.