SciPost Submission Page
Three-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in Topological Amorphous Metals
by Jiong-Hao Wang, Yong Xu
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Jiong-Hao Wang |
| Submission information | |
|---|---|
| Preprint Link: | scipost_202503_00005v1 (pdf) |
| Date submitted: | 2025-03-04 05:53 |
| Submitted by: | Wang, Jiong-Hao |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics |
| Ontological classification | |
|---|---|
| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approaches: | Theoretical, Computational |
Abstract
Weyl semimetals have been theoretically predicted to become topological metals with anomalous Hall conductivity in amorphous systems. However, measuring the anomalous Hall conductivity in realistic materials, particularly those with multiple pairs of Weyl points, is a significant challenge. If a system respects time-reversal symmetry, then the anomalous Hall conductivity even vanishes. As such, it remains an open question how to probe the Weyl band like topology in amorphous materials. Here, we theoretically demonstrate that, under magnetic fields, a topological metal slab in amorphous systems exhibits three-dimensional quantum Hall effect, even in time-reversal invariant systems, thereby providing a feasible approach to exploring Weyl band like topology in amorphous materials. We unveil the topological origin of the quantized Hall conductance by calculating the Bott index. The index is carried by broadened Landau levels with bulk states spatially localized except at critical transition energies. The topological property also results in edge states localized at distinct hinges on two opposite surfaces.
Author indications on fulfilling journal expectations
- Provide a novel and synergetic link between different research areas.
- Open a new pathway in an existing or a new research direction, with clear potential for multi-pronged follow-up work
- Detail a groundbreaking theoretical/experimental/computational discovery
- Present a breakthrough on a previously-identified and long-standing research stumbling block
Author comments upon resubmission
Thank you very much for sending us the reports for our manuscript. We greatly appreciate the referees’ time on reviewing the manuscript and their insightful and constructive suggestions/comments, which have helped us improve our paper significantly. Based on their helpful comments, we have carried out substantial new calculations (see the manuscript and our responses to the referees’ comments). These calculations are highly nontrivial and consume much computational resources, resulting in our delayed reply. These new results make our manuscript much stronger and better, and suitable for publication in SciPost Physics.
Referee 1 is very positive by pointing out that “Novel findings, with an approach motivated by experimental relevance”, “Multiple methods applied to verify and explain results”, “has sufficient novelty and relevance to the scientific community”, “quite relevant for current research in the field”, “Generally clear writing and presentation” and “warrant publication”. Meanwhile, he/she has provided some comments and questions, which we have carefully addressed in the revised manuscript, making our paper much stronger and more complete.
Referee 2 is also very positive by pointing out that “the manuscript clearly written with interesting results”, “potentially novel way of detecting topology in amorphous topological metals”, and “I would be happy to recommend this work for publication” provided “the authors answer my comments”. In the revised manuscript, we have fully addressed his/her comments.
To sum up, we have carefully and thoroughly addressed all the comments/suggestions from the referees and append a summary of the major revisions and a detailed response in the following. We have also marked out these changes in red color in the main text, so that the editor and the referees can identify them conveniently.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Jiong-Hao Wang and Yong Xu
List of changes
Summary of major changes:
1. We have added a new Section 5 to elaborate on the effect of the magnitude of the magnetic field.
2. We have added more numerical results of the time-reversal symmetric model in Section 6 and Fig.5, including the Bott index, density of states and localization length.
3. We have moved the Appendix B on tilted magnetic fields in the original version to Section 7 in the main text and added the results on the time-reversal symmetric model, shown in Fig.7.
4. We have modified the introduction based on the new results.
5. We have added some references on the spectral localizer in the introduction and updated some references in arXiv versions to published versions.
6. We have changed the word “impractical” to “difficult” in the discussion of ARPES in the introduction and added a detailed discussion in Appendix A.
7. We have added a brief discussion on the necessity of the geometry thin in the y direction in Section 2 and detailed analysis in appendix B.
8. We have changed parameter A to γ in Section 2.
9. We have clarified the difference of our terminal configuration from that for anomalous Hall effect in Section 3.
10.We have explained that the bulk states in Fig.1(b) are visible due to the finite number of samples in Section 3.
11. We have added discussions that the mechanism for 3D quantum Hall effect on amorphous lattices is generic in Section 4, 6 and 8.
12.We have added the density of states in Fig. 6(c) for the time-reversal symmetry broken model under the tilted magnetic field.
13. We have modified the discussion on material realization in the Conclusion section.
Current status:
Reports on this Submission
Report
The authors have replied to all the points raised and have done significant work to clarify the parts that were left vague in the original version. The updated conclusions also help elaborate on how the manuscript opens new pathways for future research.
Requested changes
More of a suggested than a required change:
- The markers in Fig. 5(c) could be made larger, as the blue marker is somewhat obscured by its position.
Recommendation
Publish (meets expectations and criteria for this Journal)