Universal Conductance and Conductivity at Critical Points in Integer Quantum Hall Systems

The sample averaged longitudinal two-terminal conductance and the respective Kubo-conductivity are calculated at quantum critical points in the integer quantum Hall regime. In the limit of large system size, both transport quantities are found to be the same within numerical uncertainty in the lowest Landau band, $0.60\pm 0.02 e^2/h$ and $0.58\pm 0.03 e^2/h$, respectively. In the 2nd lowest Landau band, a critical conductance $0.61\pm 0.03 e^2/h$ is obtained which indeed supports the notion of universality. However, these numbers are significantly at variance with the hitherto commonly believed value $1/2 e^2/h$. We argue that this difference is due to the multifractal structure of critical wavefunctions, a property that should generically show up in the conductance at quantum critical points.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Modeling Disordered Quantum Systems with Dynamical Networks

It is the purpose of the present article to show that so-called network models, originally designed to describe static properties of disordered electronic systems, can be easily generalized to quantum-{\em dynamical} models, which then allow for an investigation of dynamical and spectral aspects. This concept is exemplified by the Chalker-Coddington model for the Quantum Hall effect and a three-dimensional generalization of it. We simulate phase coherent diffusion of wave packets and consider spatial and spectral correlations of network eigenstates as well as the distribution of (quasi-)energy levels. Apart from that it is demonstrated how network models can be used to determine two-point conductances. Our numerical calculations for the three-dimensional model at the Metal-Insulator transition point delivers among others an anomalous diffusion exponent of $\eta = 3 - D_2 = 1.7 \pm 0.1$. The methods presented here in detail have been used partially in earlier work.Comment: 16 pages, Rev-TeX. to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Coulomb drag between quantum wires with different electron densities

We study the way back-scattering electron--electron interaction generates Coulomb drag between quantum wires with different densities. At low temperature $T$ the system can undergo a commensurate-- incommensurate transition as the potential difference $|W|$ between the two wires passes a critical value $\Delta$, and this transition is reflected in a marked change in the dependence of drag resistivity on $W$ and $T$. At high temperature a density difference between the wires suppresses Coulomb drag induced by back scattering, and we use the Tomonaga--Luttinger model to study this suppression in detail.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Approximate quantum error correction, random codes, and quantum channel capacity

We work out a theory of approximate quantum error correction that allows us to derive a general lower bound for the entanglement fidelity of a quantum code. The lower bound is given in terms of Kraus operators of the quantum noise. This result is then used to analyze the average error correcting performance of codes that are randomly drawn from unitarily invariant code ensembles. Our results confirm that random codes of sufficiently large block size are highly suitable for quantum error correction. Moreover, employing a lemma of Bennett, Shor, Smolin, and Thapliyal, we prove that random coding attains information rates of the regularized coherent information.Comment: 29 pages, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. A, improved lower bound for code entanglement fidelity, simplified proo

Spectral Properties of the Chalker-Coddington Network

We numerically investigate the spectral statistics of pseudo-energies for the unitary network operator U of the Chalker--Coddington network. The shape of the level spacing distribution as well the scaling of its moments is compared to known results for quantum Hall systems. We also discuss the influence of multifractality on the tail of the spacing distribution.Comment: JPSJ-style, 7 pages, 4 Postscript figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Kill one or kill the many: Interplay between mitophagy and apoptosis

Mitochondria are key players of cellular metabolism, Ca2+ homeostasis, and apoptosis. The functionality of mitochondria is tightly regulated, and dysfunctional mitochondria are removed via mitophagy, a specialized form of autophagy that is compromised in hereditary forms of Parkinson's disease. Through mitophagy, cells are able to cope with mitochondrial stress until the damage becomes too great, which leads to the activation of proapoptotic BCL-2 family proteins located on the outer mitochondrial membrane. Active pro-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins facilitate the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondrial intermembrane space (IMS) into the cytosol, committing the cell to apoptosis by activating a cascade of cysteinyl-aspartate specific proteases (caspases). We are only beginning to understand how the choice between mitophagy and the activation of caspases is determined on the mitochondrial surface. Intriguingly in neurons, caspase activation also plays a non-apoptotic role in synaptic plasticity. Here we review the current knowledge on the interplay between mitophagy and caspase activation with a special focus on the central nervous system

Correlation of eigenstates in the critical regime of quantum Hall systems

We extend the multifractal analysis of the statistics of critical wave functions in quantum Hall systems by calculating numerically the correlations of local amplitudes corresponding to eigenstates at two different energies. Our results confirm multifractal scaling relations which are different from those occurring in conventional critical phenomena. The critical exponent corresponding to the typical amplitude, $\alpha_0\approx 2.28$, gives an almost complete characterization of the critical behavior of eigenstates, including correlations. Our results support the interpretation of the local density of states being an order parameter of the Anderson transition.Comment: 17 pages, 9 Postscript figure

Wave-packet dynamics at the mobility edge in two- and three-dimensional systems

We study the time evolution of wave packets at the mobility edge of disordered non-interacting electrons in two and three spatial dimensions. The results of numerical calculations are found to agree with the predictions of scaling theory. In particular, we find that the $k$-th moment of the probability density $(t)$ scales like $t^{k/d}$ in $d$ dimensions. The return probability $P(r=0,t)$ scales like $t^{-D_2/d}$, with the generalized dimension of the participation ratio $D_2$. For long times and short distances the probability density of the wave packet shows power law scaling $P(r,t)\propto t^{-D_2/d}r^{D_2-d}$. The numerical calculations were performed on network models defined by a unitary time evolution operator providing an efficient model for the study of the wave packet dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 4 figures included, published versio

Universal Multifractality in Quantum Hall Systems with Long-Range Disorder Potential

We investigate numerically the localization-delocalization transition in quantum Hall systems with long-range disorder potential with respect to multifractal properties. Wavefunctions at the transition energy are obtained within the framework of the generalized Chalker--Coddington network model. We determine the critical exponent $\alpha_0$ characterizing the scaling behavior of the local order parameter for systems with potential correlation length $d$ up to $12$ magnetic lengths $l$. Our results show that $\alpha_0$ does not depend on the ratio $d/l$. With increasing $d/l$, effects due to classical percolation only cause an increase of the microscopic length scale, whereas the critical behavior on larger scales remains unchanged. This proves that systems with long-range disorder belong to the same universality class as those with short-range disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, postsript, uuencoded, gz-compresse