The Anderson transition in two dimensions in the presence of spin-orbit coupling

Localization properties of a two-channel 3D Anderson model

We study two coupled 3D lattices, one of them featuring uncorrelated on-site disorder and the other one being fully ordered, and analyze how the interlattice hopping affects the localization-delocalization transition of the former and how the latter responds to it. We find that moderate hopping pushes down the critical disorder strength for the disordered channel throughout the entire spectrum compared to the usual phase diagram for the 3D Anderson model. In that case, the ordered channel begins to feature an effective disorder also leading to the emergence of mobility edges but with higher associated critical disorder values. Both channels become pretty much alike as their hopping strength is further increased, as expected. We also consider the case of two disordered components and show that in the presence of certain correlations among the parameters of both lattices, one obtains a disorder-free channel decoupled from the rest of the system.

Driven flow with exclusion and spin-dependent transport in graphenelike structures

We present a simplified description for spin-dependent electronic transport in honeycomb-lattice structures with spin-orbit interactions, using generalizations of the stochastic nonequilibrium model known as the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process. Mean field theory and numerical simulations are used to study currents, density profiles, and current polarization in quasi-one-dimensional systems with open boundaries, and externally imposed particle injection (α) and ejection (β) rates. We investigate the influence of allowing for double site occupancy, according to Pauli's exclusion principle, on the behavior of the quantities of interest. We find that double occupancy shows strong signatures for specific combinations of rates, namely high α and low β, but otherwise its effects are quantitatively suppressed. Comments are made on the possible relevance of the present results to experiments on suitably doped graphenelike structures.

Quantum and classical superballistic transport in a relativistic kicked-rotor system

As an unusual type of anomalous diffusion behavior, (transient) superballistic transport is not well known but has been experimentally simulated recently. Quantum superballistic transport models to date are mainly based on connected sublattices which are constructed to have different properties. In this work, we show that both quantum and classical superballistic transport in the momentum space can occur in a simple periodically driven Hamiltonian system, namely, a relativistic kicked-rotor system with a nonzero mass term. The nonzero mass term essentially realizes a situation, now in the momentum space, in which two (momentum) sublattices with different dispersion relations (and hence different nature of on-site potential) are connected as a junction. It is further shown that the quantum and classical superballistic transport should occur under much different choices of the system parameters. The results are of interest to studies of anomalous transport, quantum and classical chaos, and the issue of quantum-classical correspondence.

Evidence of a mobility edge for photons in two dimensions

A scaling analysis of conductance for photons in two dimensions is carried out and, contrary to widely held belief, we find strong evidence of a mobility edge. Such behavior is compatible with the existence of an Anderson transition for electronic systems under symplectic symmetry, and indeed we show that the transfer matrix in the photonic system we have modelled has such a symmetry. We verify single parameter scaling of the conductance and demonstrate the transition from the metallic phase to localization. Key parameters, including the critical disorder, the conductance, and the critical exponent of the localization length are calculated, and it is shown that the value of the critical exponent is similar to that for electronic systems with symplectic symmetry.

Anderson transition in two-dimensional systems with spin-orbit coupling

We report a numerical investigation of the Anderson transition in two-dimensional systems with spin-orbit coupling. An accurate estimate of the critical exponent nu for the divergence of the localization length in this universality class has to our knowledge not been reported in the literature. Here we analyze the SU(2) model. We find that for this model corrections to scaling due to irrelevant scaling variables may be neglected permitting an accurate estimate of the exponent nu=2.73+/-0.02.

New spin-orbit-induced universality class in the integer quantum Hall regime

Using heuristic arguments and numerical simulations it is argued that the critical exponent nu describing the localization length divergence at the integer quantum-Hall transition is modified in the presence of spin-orbit scattering with short-range correlations. The exponent is very close to nu=4/3, the percolation correlation length exponent, consistent with the prediction of a semiclassical argument. In addition, a band of weakly localized states is conjectured.