Hall conductance and topological invariant for open systems

Sci Rep. 2014 Sep 24:4:6455. doi: 10.1038/srep06455.

Abstract

The Hall conductivity given by the Kubo formula is a linear response of quantum transverse transport to a weak electric field. It has been intensively studied for quantum systems without decoherence, but it is barely explored for systems subject to decoherence. In this paper, we develop a formulism to deal with this issue for topological insulators. The Hall conductance of a topological insulator coupled to an environment is derived, the derivation is based on a linear response theory developed for open systems in this paper. As an application, the Hall conductance of a two-band topological insulator and a two-dimensional lattice is presented and discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't