Chern number and integer Hall conductivity 2026-10-18
For filled, separated, noninteracting magnetic Bloch bands, the Berry curvature integral over the magnetic Brillouin zone is an integer Chern number , giving . Patches of Berry connection meet through phases with integer windings; continuous gap-preserving changes cannot change . D. J. Thouless, M. Kohmoto, M. P. Nightingale and M. den Nijs developed this band argument; it does not establish the interacting fractional case.[ref]
Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential by D. J. Thouless and others. pp. 405–407, Kubo formula and phase winding
Quantum Hall plateau 2026-10-18
The degeneracy of a Landau level is per resolved internal branch in area . The filling factor varies continuously. Additional localized eigenstates need not carry bulk transport, allowing an integer plateau over an interval of ; a mobility gap need not be an empty spectral gap.[ref]
Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential by D. J. Thouless and others. p. 405, gaps and localized tails
The plot is an original phenomenological construction, not measured data or a calculation of Anderson localization. It stipulates dimensionless transverse sheet conductivity and longitudinal sheet conductivity , with chosen , . Both are measured in units . The quantum Hall conductivity tensor inversion produces and . Regions near , yield plateaus near ; the model alone does not explain their microscopic robustness. Each step represents one resolved branch, without assuming unresolved spin or valley multiplicities.
