A topological characterization of delocalization in a spin-orbit coupling system

We show that wavefunctions in a two-dimensional (2D) electron system with spin-orbit coupling can be characterized by a topological quantity--the Chern integer due to the existence of the intrinsic Kramers degeneracy. The localization-delocalization transition in such a system is studied in terms of such a Chern number description, which reproduces the known metal-insulator transition point. The present work suggests a unified picture for various known 2D delocalization phenomena based on the same topological characterization.Comment: RevTex, 12 pages; Two PostScript figure

Classical advection of guiding centers in a random magnetic field

We investigate theoretically and experimentally classical advective transport in a 2D electron gas in a random magnetic field. For uniform external perpendicular magnetic fields large compared to the random field we observe a strong enhancement of conductance compared to the ordinary Drude value. This can be understood as resulting from advection of cyclotron guiding centers. For low disorder this enhancement shows non-trivial scaling as a function of scattering time, with consistency between theory and experiment