Spin quantum Hall effect in unconventional superconductors

T. Senthil; J. B. Marston; Matthew P. A. Fisher

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.60.4245

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Spin quantum Hall effect in unconventional superconductors

T. Senthil, J. B. Marston, Matthew P. A. Fisher

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.60.4245 · Physical Review B

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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 dx2−y2+idxy superconductor which we argue has a dimensionless spin Hall conductance equal to 2. A theory of the edge states of the dx2−y2+idxy 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.