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arXiv:1809.07429 · Nuclear Physics B

On truncations of the Chalker-Coddington model

Romain Couvreur, Eric Vernier, Jesper Lykke Jacobsen, Hubert Saleur

Published Feb 19, 2019• 5 citations
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Abstract

The supersymmetric reformulation of physical observables in the Chalker-Coddington model (CC) for the plateau transition in the integer quantum Hall effect leads to a reformulation of its critical properties in terms of a 2D non-compact loop model or a 1D non-compact gl(2|2) spin chain. Following a proposal by Ikhlef, Fendley and Cardy [11], we define and study a series of truncations of these loop models and spin chains, involving a finite and growing number of degrees of freedom per site. The case of the first truncation is solved analytically using the Bethe-ansatz. It is shown to exhibit many of the qualitative features expected for the untruncated theory, including a quadratic spectrum of exponents with a continuous component, and a normalizable ground state below that continuum. Quantitative properties are however at odds with the results of simulations on the CC model. Higher truncations are studied only numerically. While their properties are found to get closer to those of the CC model, it is not clear whether this is a genuine effect, or the result of strong finite-size corrections.

DOI
10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2019.02.015

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The supersymmetric reformulation of physical observables in the Chalker-Coddington model (CC) for the plateau transition in the integer quantum Hall effect leads to a reformulation of its critical properties in terms of a 2D non-compact loop model or a 1D non-compact gl(2|2) spin chain. Following a proposal by Ikhlef, Fendley and Cardy [11], we define and study a series of truncations of these loop models and spin chains, involving a finite and growing number of degrees of freedom per site. The case of the first truncation is solved analytically using the Bethe-ansatz. It is shown to exhibit many of the qualitative features expected for the untruncated theory, including a quadratic spectrum of exponents with a continuous component, and a normalizable ground state below that continuum. Quantitative properties are however at odds with the results of simulations on the CC model. Higher truncations are studied only numerically. While their properties are found to get closer to those of the CC model, it is not clear whether this is a genuine effect, or the result of strong finite-size corrections.
We consider the Chalker-Coddington network model for the integer quantum Hall effect, and examine the possibility of solving it exactly. In the supersymmetric path integral framework, we introduce a truncation procedure, leading to a series of well-defined two-dimensional loop models with two loop flavors. In the phase diagram of the first-order truncated model, we identify four integrable branches related to the dilute Birman-Wenzl-Murakami braid-monoid algebra and parameterized by the loop fugacity nnn. In the continuum limit, two of these branches (1,2) are described by a pair of decoupled copies of a Coulomb-gas theory, whereas the other two branches (3,4) couple the two loop flavors, and relate to an $\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{r}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{r}/\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{2r}$ Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) coset model for the particular values $n=\ensuremath{-}2\mathrm{cos}[\ensuremath{\pi}/(r+2)]$, where rrr is a positive integer. The truncated Chalker-Coddington model is the n=0n=0n=0 point of branch 4. By numerical diagonalization, we find that its universality class is neither an analytic continuation of the WZW coset nor the universality class of the original Chalker-Coddington model. It constitutes rather an integrable, critical approximation to the latter.
We use the density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) algorithm and finite-size scaling to study a supersymmetric (SUSY) spin chain that models plateau transitions in the integer quantum Hall effect. To illustrate the method, we first present results for the S=1 antiferromagnetic spin chain. Different scaling behavior of the dimerization operator is obtained for the Haldane phase, the dimerized phase, and at the critical point separating the two phases. We then investigate the supersymmetric spin chain. As the on-site Hilbert space has infinite dimension, it is non-compact. We present DMRG calculations for supersymmetric truncations of the on-site Hilbert space and also for non-supersymmetric truncations. These two cases scale differently, in accord with a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorem.
We show that the localization transition in the integer quantum Hall effect as described by the Chalker-Coddington network model is quantum critical. We first map the anisotropic network model to the problem of diagonalizing a one-dimensional non-Hermitian noncompact supersymmetric lattice Hamiltonian of interacting bosons and fermions. Its behavior is investigated numerically using the density matrix renormalization group method, and critical behavior is found at the plateau transition. This result is confirmed by a generalization of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem.
The thermodynamic limit of superspin chains can show several intriguing properties, including the emergence of continua of scaling dimensions and the appearance of discrete states when imposing toroidal boundary conditions. Nevertheless, the former’s exhaustive characterization in terms of Conformal Field Theories is still lacking. In order to study the thermodynamic limit of the U_q[sl(2|1)] 3 ⊗ 3̄ superspin chain in the antiferromagnetic regime, we analyze the low lying excitations by means of the model’s exact solution using the Algebraic Bethe Ansatz. In the isotropic limit, this model may be used as a toy model for the description of plateau transitions in Quantum Hall systems. The definition of a quasimomentum operator allows for a characterization of the continua of scaling dimensions, thereby giving rise to a quantum number for the corresponding non-compact component of the spectrum in the thermodynamic limit. The associated degeneracies are lifted on the lattice by logarithmic fine structures. Based on the extrapolation of our finite size data we find that under a variation of the boundary conditions from periodic to antiperiodic for the fermionic degrees of freedom, levels from the continuous part of the spectrum flow into discrete levels and vice versa. Investigating the thermodynamic limit of the q-deformed osp(3|2) superspin chain, corresponding to an intersecting loop model in the rational limit, we seek to uncover its low-lying critical exponents. We present evidences that the latter are built in terms of composites of anomalous dimensions of two Coulomb gases with distinct radii and exponents associated to Z(2) degrees of freedom. This view is supported by the fact that the S = 1 XXZ integrable chain spectrum is present in some of the sectors of the superspin chain at a particular value of the deformation parameter. We find that the fine structure of finite-size effects is very rich for a typical anisotropic spin chain. In fact, we argue on the existence of a family of states with the same conformal dimension whose lattice degeneracies are lifted by logarithmic corrections. On the other hand, we also report on states of the spectrum whose finite-size corrections seem to be governed by a power law behaviour. We finally observe that under toroidal boundary conditions the ground state dependence on the twist angle has two distinct analytical structures.
A careful study of the supersymmetric version of Pruisken’s nonlinear σ model for the integer quantum Hall effect is presented. The lattice regularized model is cast in Hamiltonian form by taking the anisotropic limit and interpreting the topological density as an alternating sum of Wess-Zumino terms. It is argued that the relevant large-scale physics of the model is preserved by projection of the quantum Hamiltonian on its sector of degenerate strong-coupling ground states. For values of the Hall conductivity close to e 2 /2h (mod e 2 /h), where a delocalization transition occurs, this yields the Hamiltonian of a quantum superspin chain which is closely related to an anisotropic version of the Chalker-Coddington model. The relation implies that the ratio of magnetic length over potential correlation length is an irrelevant parameter at the transition. The superspin chain resembles a 1d isotropic antiferromagnet with spin 1/2. It has an alternating structure which however permits an invariance under translation by one site. The conductance coefficients of a quantum Hall system with N small contacts translate into N-superspin correlation functions which are governed by conformal invariance. The superspin formalism provides a framework for studying the crossover from classical to quantum percolation. It does not however encompass the frequency-dependent correlations of wave amplitudes at criticality.
We introduce and analyze a class of model systems to study transitions in the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE). Even without disorder our model exhibits an IQHE transition as a control parameter is varied. We find that the transition is in the two-dimensional Ising universality class and compute all associated exponents and critical transport properties. The fixed point has time-reversal, particle-hole, and parity invariance. We then consider the effect of quenched disorder on the IQHE transition and find the following. (i) Randomness in the control parameter (which breaks all the above symmetries) translates into bond randomness in the Ising model and is hence marginally irrelevant. The transition may equally well be viewed as a quantum percolation of edge states localized on equipotentials. The absence of random-phase factors for the edge states is responsible for the nongeneric (Ising) critical properties. (ii) For a random magnetic field (which preserves particle-hole symmetry in every realization) the model exhibits an exactly solvable fixed line, described in terms of a product of a Luttinger liquid and an SU(n) spin chain. While exponents vary continuously along the fixed line, the longitudinal conductivity is constant due to a general conformal sum rule for Kac-Moody algebras (derived here), and is computed exactly. We also obtain a closed expression for the extended zero-energy wave function for every realization of disorder and compute its exact multifractal spectrum f(\ensuremath{\alpha}) and the exponents of all participation ratios. One point on the fixed line corresponds to a recently proposed model by Gade and Wegner. (iii) The model in the presence of a random on-site potential scales to a strong disorder regime, which is argued to be described by a symplectic nonlinear-sigma-model fixed point. (iv) We find a plausible global phase diagram in which all forms of disorder are simultaneously considered. In this generic case, the presence of random-phase factors in the edge-state description indicates that the transition is described by a Chalker-Coddington model, with a so far analytically inaccessible fixed point.