In the theory of Anderson localization, a landscape function predicts where wave functions localize in a disordered medium, without requiring the solution of an eigenvalue problem. It is known how to construct the localization landscape for the scalar wave equation in a random potential, or equivalently for the Schrödinger equation of spinless electrons. Here we generalize the concept to the Dirac equation, which includes the effects of spin-orbit coupling and allows to study quantum localization in graphene or in topological insulators and superconductors. The landscape function u(r) is defined on a lattice as a solution of the differential equation H u(r) = 1, where H is the Ostrowsky comparison matrix of the Dirac Hamiltonian. Random Hamiltonians with the same (positive definite) comparison matrix have localized states at the same positions, defining an equivalence class for Anderson localization. This provides for a mapping between the Hermitian and non-Hermitian Anderson model.
The symmetries that protect massless Dirac fermions from a gap opening may become ineffective if the Dirac equation is discretized in space and time, either because of scattering between multiple Dirac cones in the Brillouin zone (fermion doubling) or because of singularities at zone boundaries. Here an implementation of Dirac fermions on a space-time lattice that removes both obstructions is introduced. The quasi-energy band structure has a tangent dispersion with a single Dirac cone that cannot be gapped without breaking both time-reversal and chiral symmetries. It is shown that this topological protection is absent in the familiar single-cone discretization with a linear sawtooth dispersion, as a consequence of the fact that there the time-evolution operator is discontinuous at Brillouin zone boundaries.
The spatial discretization of the single-cone Dirac Hamiltonian on
the surface of a topological insulator or superconductor needs a special
``staggered’’ grid, to avoid the appearance of a spurious second cone in
the Brillouin zone. We adapt the Stacey discretization from lattice
gauge theory to produce a generalized eigenvalue problem, of the form
\bm{\mathcal H}\bm{\psi}=\bm{E}\bm{\mathcal P}\bm{\psi}ℋ𝛙=𝐄𝒫𝛙,
with Hermitian tight-binding operators \bm{\mathcal H}ℋ,
\bm{\mathcal P}𝒫,
a locally conserved particle current, and preserved chiral and
symplectic symmetries. This permits the study of the spectral statistics
of Dirac fermions in each of the four symmetry classes A, AII, AIII, and
D.
Building on the discovery that a Weyl superconductor in a magnetic field supports chiral Landau level motion along the vortex lines, we investigate its transport properties out of equilibrium. We show that the vortex lattice carries an electric current I = 1 2 (Q 2 eff /h)(Φ/Φ0)V between two normal metal contacts at voltage difference V , with Φ the magnetic flux through the system, Φ0 the superconducting flux quantum, and Q eff < e the renormalized charge of the Weyl fermions in the superconducting Landau level. Because the charge renormalization is energy dependent, a nonzero thermo-electric coefficient appears even in the absence of energy-dependent scattering processes.
The many body localization (MBL) of spin-1/2 fermions poses a challenging problem. It is known that the disorder in the charge sector may be insufficient to cause full MBL. Here, we study dynamics of a single hole in one dimensional t-J model subject to a random magnetic field. We show that strong disorder that couples only to the spin sector localizes both spin and charge degrees of freedom. Charge localization is confirmed also for a finite concentration of holes. While we cannot precisely pinpoint the threshold disorder, we conjecture that there are two distinct transitions. Weaker disorder first causes localization in the spin sector. Carriers become localized for somewhat stronger disorder, when the spin localization length is of the order of a single lattice spacing. 71.27.+a, 71.30.+h, 71.10.Fd Introduction.-The many-body localization (MBL) has been demonstrated by various numerical [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and analytical studies [12,13] carried out mostly for one-dimensional (1D) systems of spinless particles or equivalent spin-models. Among unusual properties of MBL we only emphasize the logarithmic growth of the entanglement entropy [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and the subdiffusive transport in the regime of strong disorder but still below the MBL transition [21][22][23][24].
Massless Dirac fermions in an electric field propagate along the field lines without backscattering, due to the combination of spin-momentum locking and spin conservation. This phenomenon, known as "Klein tunneling'", may be lost if the Dirac equation is discretized in space and time, because of scattering between multiple Dirac cones in the Brillouin zone. To avoid this, a staggered space-time lattice discretization has been developed in the literature, with one single Dirac cone in the Brillouin zone of the original square lattice. Here we show that the staggering doubles the size of the Brillouin zone, which actually contains two Dirac cones. We find that this fermion doubling causes a spurious breakdown of Klein tunneling, which can be avoided by an alternative single-cone discretization scheme based on a split-operator approach.
We calculate the Landau levels of a Kramers–Weyl semimetal thin slab in a perpendicular magnetic field B. The coupling of Fermi arcs on opposite surfaces broadens the Landau levels with a band width that oscillates periodically in 1/B. We interpret the spectrum in terms of a one-dimensional superlattice induced by magnetic breakdown at Weyl points. The band width oscillations may be observed as 1/B-periodic magnetoconductance oscillations, at weaker fields and higher temperatures than the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations due to Landau level quantization. No such spectrum appears in a generic Weyl semimetal, the Kramers degeneracy at time-reversally invariant momenta is essential.
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