Speaker
Martin Zirnbauer
(University of Cologne)
Description
Of the five 2D strong topological insulator Anderson transitions, all of which should be logarithmic conformal field theories of Wess-Zumino-Witten type, only one is beginning to be understood: the integer quantum Hall transition. The key feature here is that that the global symmetry of the non-critical system undergoes rank reduction (rather than doubling) at criticality, by a novel mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this talk, I will review the current state of our understanding.