12.

2 Motion in a Magnetic Field 677

speaking, the full wave function should cover an area twice as large; so
we come upon A = 27rr;. Now we can identify a presumably important
value of the electron density (per unit area): it belongs to the case when
the plane is fully covered with cyclotron orbits of the smallest size:

(12.16)

Replacing this in the result (12.3), we are led to surmise that the special
value of the Hall conductivity

(12.17)

must be playing an important role, and that it is associated with a magic

value of the electron density. A proper quantum-mechanical treatment
confirms that such is indeed the case.

12.2 Motion in a .Magnetic Field

We have seen in Sec. 2.1 that the Hamiltonian describing the orbital
motion of an otherwise free electron in a magnetic field is

(12.18)

In classical mechanics, the velocity is obtained from

(12.19)

It would be usual to call Pkin = rnv the kinetic momentum. In quantum

mechanics, the velocity operator is defined analogously

(12.20)

If we wish, we can rewrite the Hamiltonian as

N = -m
2v - 2 = -2 (-’ -’ -’>
zI,+zIy+?J, ( 12.2 1)