A renormalization approach for the 2D Anderson model at the band edge: Scaling of the localization volume

We study the localization volumes $V$ (participation ratio) of electronic wave functions in the 2d-Anderson model with diagonal disorder. Using a renormalization procedure, we show that at the band edges, i.e. for energies $E\approx \pm 4$, $V$ is inversely proportional to the variance \var of the site potentials. Using scaling arguments, we show that in the neighborhood of $E=\pm 4$, $V$ scales as V=\var^{-1}g((4-\ve E\ve)/\var) with the scaling function $g(x)$. Numerical simulations confirm this scaling ansatz

Sufficient Conditions for Topological Order in Insulators

We prove the existence of low energy excitations in insulating systems at general filling factor under certain conditions, and discuss in which cases these may be identified as topological excitations. This proof is based on previously proven locality results. In the case of half-filling it provides a significantly shortened proof of the recent higher dimensional Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem.Comment: 7 pages, no figure

Absence of localization in a disordered one-dimensional ring threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux

Absence of localization is demonstrated analytically to leading order in weak disorder in a one-dimensional Anderson model of a ring threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm (A-B) flux. The result follows from adapting an earlier perturbation treatment of disorder in a superconducting ring subjected to an imaginary vector potential proportional to a depinning field for flux lines bound to random columnar defects parallel to the axis of the ring. The absence of localization in the ring threaded by an A-B flux for sufficiently weak disorder is compatible with large free electron type persistent current obtained in recent studies of the above model

Topological winding properties of spin edge states in Kane-Mele graphene model

We study the spin edge states in the quantum spin-Hall (QSH) effect on a single-atomic layer graphene ribbon system with both intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings. The Harper equation for solving the energies of the spin edge states is derived. The results show that in the QSH phase, there are always two pairs of gapless spin-filtered edge states in the bulk energy gap, corresponding to two pairs of zero points of the Bloch function on the complex-energy Riemann surface (RS). The topological aspect of the QSH phase can be distinguished by the difference of the winding numbers of the spin edge states with different polarized directions cross the holes of the RS, which is equivalent to the Z2 topological invariance proposed by Kane and Mele [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 146802 (2005)].Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Ensemble Averaged Conductance Fluctuations in Anderson Localized Systems

We demonstrate the presence of energy dependent fluctuations in the localization length, which depend on the disorder distribution. These fluctuations lead to Ensemble Averaged Conductance Fluctuations (EACF) and are enhanced by large disorder. For the binary distribution the fluctuations are strongly enhanced in comparison to the Gaussian and uniform distributions. These results have important implications on ensemble averaged quantities, such as the transmission through quantum wires, where fluctuations can subsist to very high temperatures. For the non-fluctuating part of the localization length in one dimension we obtained an improved analytical expression valid for all disorder strengths by averaging the probability density.Comment: 4 page

Orbital magnetization and Chern number in a supercell framework: Single k-point formula

The key formula for computing the orbital magnetization of a crystalline system has been recently found [D. Ceresoli, T. Thonhauser, D. Vanderbilt, R. Resta, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 74}, 024408 (2006)]: it is given in terms of a Brillouin-zone integral, which is discretized on a reciprocal-space mesh for numerical implementation. We find here the single ${\bf k}$-point limit, useful for large enough supercells, and particularly in the framework of Car-Parrinello simulations for noncrystalline systems. We validate our formula on the test case of a crystalline system, where the supercell is chosen as a large multiple of the elementary cell. We also show that--somewhat counterintuitively--even the Chern number (in 2d) can be evaluated using a single Hamiltonian diagonalization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; appendix adde

Stability of the shell structure in 2D quantum dots

We study the effects of external impurities on the shell structure in semiconductor quantum dots by using a fast response-function method for solving the Kohn-Sham equations. We perform statistics of the addition energies up to 20 interacting electrons. The results show that the shell structure is generally preserved even if effects of high disorder are clear. The Coulomb interaction and the variation in ground-state spins have a strong effect on the addition-energy distributions, which in the noninteracting single-electron picture correspond to level statistics showing mixtures of Poisson and Wigner forms.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Complexity of Vector Spin Glasses

We study the annealed complexity of the m-vector spin glasses in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick limit. The eigenvalue spectrum of the Hessian matrix of the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) free energy is found to consist of a continuous band of positive eigenvalues in addition to an isolated eigenvalue and (m-1) null eigenvalues due to rotational invariance. Rather surprisingly, the band does not extend to zero at any finite temperature. The isolated eigenvalue becomes zero in the thermodynamic limit, as in the Ising case (m=1), indicating that the same supersymmetry breaking recently found in Ising spin glasses occurs in vector spin glasses.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure