Abstract
We study the properties of the “spin quantum Hall fluid”—a spin phase with quantized spin Hall conductance that is potentially realizable in superconducting systems with unconventional pairing symmetry. A simple realization is provided by a superconductor which we argue has a dimensionless spin Hall conductance equal to 2. A theory of the edge states of the superconductor is developed. The properties of the transition to a phase with vanishing spin Hall conductance induced by disorder are considered. We construct a description of this transition in terms of a supersymmetric spin chain, and use it to numerically determine universal properties of the transition. We discuss various possible experimental probes of this quantum Hall physics.
- Received 4 February 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.4245
©1999 American Physical Society