Topologically Localized Insulators

We show that fully localized, three-dimensional, time-reversal-symmetry-broken insulators do not belong to a single phase of matter but can realize topologically distinct phases that are labeled by integers. The phase transition occurs only when the system becomes conducting at some filling. We find that these novel topological phases are fundamentally distinct from insulators without disorder: they are guaranteed to host delocalized boundary states giving rise to the quantized boundary Hall conductance, whose value is equal to the bulk topological invariant.

Automated summary

The study shows that fully localized, three-dimensional, time-reversal-symmetry-broken insulators do not belong to a single phase of matter but can realize topologically distinct phases labeled by integers. Phase transition only occurs when the system becomes conducting at some filling, and these novel topological phases are fundamentally different from insulators without disorder in that they guarantee delocalized boundary states with quantized boundary Hall conductance equal to the bulk topological invariant.