Heavy-Tailed Hall Conductivity Fluctuations in Quantum Hall Transitions

Abstract

We study the full distribution of the zero-temperature Hall conductivity in a lattice model of the IQHE using the Kubo formula across disorder realizations. Near the localization-delocalization transition, the conductivity exhibits heavy-tailed fluctuations characterized by a power-law decay with exponent $\alpha \approx 2.3$--$2.5$, indicating a finite mean but a divergent variance. The heavy tail persists across a range of system sizes, correlation lengths of the disorder potential and fillings. Our results demonstrate a breakdown of self-averaging in transport in small, coherent samples near criticality, in agreement with findings in random matrix models of topological indices.